As dementia rates continue to rise worldwide, healthcare organizations are seeking ways to streamline the clinical implementation of dementia assessments. To help meet this demand, the Alzheimer's Association has developed recommendations for cognitive assessment that recognize the role of computerized screens in diagnostic testing.
In this post, we will look at the ways in which Creyos upholds these recommendations and supports rapid, scientifically backed cognitive screening for dementia in primary care.
Key Takeaways:
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The Alzheimer’s Association recommendations for dementia screening focus on administration time and ease, as well as scientific validation. These clinical practice guidelines apply to both pen-and-paper and digital cognitive tests, which screen for dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and other conditions related to cognitive decline.
To meet the standards of the Alzheimer’s Association, clinical assessments should have:
The Creyos Dementia Assessment and Care Plan is designed to support early diagnosis and ongoing monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Built for seamless clinical implementation, our suite of scientifically validated cognitive tools rapidly gathers objective data without adding to your administrative burden.
The initial two-task Creyos screener can be used to detect subtle cognitive impairment in under 5 minutes. If results suggest that further testing may be warranted, providers can also administer a more comprehensive 20-minute cognitive assessment to help better understand if a patient may meet the diagnostic criteria for mild or major neurocognitive disorders.
Individual online cognitive tasks can also be performed for quick, domain-specific insight related to areas that patients may have previously had difficulty with. This flexible approach allows providers to easily re-administer assessments for longitudinal tracking and monitoring of cognitive health.
In practice, Creyos helped Yukon Neurology reduce full cognitive assessment time from six hours to two. These efficiencies enabled clinicians to see an average of 30 patients per day and complete 10 neuropsychological exams weekly without compromising quality of care.
Our cognitive tasks are based on more than 30 years of research and have been used in over 400 peer-reviewed studies. Currently, over ten thousand healthcare providers and researchers use Creyos to support the diagnosis of dementia and other neurological conditions or diseases.
In fact, we provided the screening tools for the world’s largest dementia trial—the Maintain Your Brain study run by the Center for Healthy Brain Aging (CHeBA). Over the course of three years, thousands of people remotely participated in online cognitive assessments, gathering objective data on the cognitive impact of lifestyle choices to better understand risk factors for dementia.
Creyos can be used either as a replacement or support tool for the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE). While both tests are valuable for their brevity and easy administration, the Creyos Dementia Assessment has been shown to be more sensitive than the MMSE for detecting dementia and MCI.
The Creyos cognitive tasks do not require training to administer and can be performed by non-physician staff in primary care settings. Because our gamified tasks are all digital, patients can complete them either in-clinic or from the comfort of their homes.
Results are automatically integrated into patients’ EHRs in the form of easy-to-read reports. Compared to traditional pen-and-paper testing.
The Alzheimer’s Association’s clinical practice guidelines include four types of tools for diagnostic testing:
All of these screening tools play a part in diagnostic testing but are unable to provide a formal diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or dementia alone. If a patient fails any of these screens, further evaluation or a specialist referral for in-depth neurocognitive testing may be warranted.
The Creyos dementia protocol combines cognitive, functional, and behavioral testing to provide information about symptoms of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
Here’s how Creyos meets the Alzheimer’s Association's recommendations:
Our brief, gamified online cognitive tasks assess several different aspects and domains of cognitive ability. Each task is quick to complete and can be administered either in clinic or remotely, with instant scoring and comparisons to large-scale normative data.
If cognitive impairment is detected by the initial two-task screener, clinicians can continue on to administer the complete dementia assessment. The Creyos Dementia Assessment measures:
Analyzing performance across multiple domains helps distinguish normal aging from mild cognitive impairment or dementia.
The Creyos cognitive tasks are sensitive enough to flag early signs of cognitive decline, including symptoms associated with mild cognitive impairment. With early detection, providers can address modifiable risk factors and initiate care planning sooner—which means better support for patients and their families.
The Creyos Dementia Assessment also includes validated questionnaires that help flag mental health concerns related to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for neurocognitive disorders and other risk factors that may influence cognition or complicate diagnosis.
Included questionnaires assess:
The clinical implementation of these questionnaires helps providers identify comorbid symptoms that may be related to neurocognitive disorders, allowing for higher-quality care.
After cognitive tasks and behavioral assessments are completed, results are transformed into easy-to-read reports that automatically upload into patients’ EHRs. Along with the Creyos Dementia Screener and Assessment Protocol, clinical judgments and interviews should be used in conjunction to reach diagnostic conclusions regarding a patient’s condition.
Based on those results, providers can use Creyos’ templates to quickly generate detailed, personalized cognitive care plans that align with Medicare. These include lifestyle advice to address risk factors, medication management, and caregiver education.
Individual cognitive tasks can be re-administered over time to gather essential longitudinal data and identify meaningful changes in performance, monitor for mild or significant decline, and evaluate a patient’s responsiveness to treatment.
As dementia rates continue to rise, it is essential for cognitive screens to become a part of routine primary care. With the help of digital testing tools, providers can confidently identify cognitive impairment and early signs of decline while alleviating administrative burden.
Creyos delivers fast cognitive assessment with simple clinical implementation that aligns with the Alzheimer’s Association recommendations. Contact us today to learn how we can help deliver clinical assessments while streamlining workflows.
Mike Battista specializes in brain health, cognition, and neuropsychological testing. He received his PhD in personality and measurement psychology at Western University in 2010 and has been doing fun and useful stuff in the intersection between science and technology ever since.