A partnership between researchers and an innovative business are working to improve early dementia detection with a simple, noninvasive motor test.
The test has already been shown to detect neuropathology and neurodegeneration in older adults who exhibit little to no symptoms of dementia.
The partners spearheading the test are:
Elizabeth Fauth, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Research Center at Utah State University.
Sydney Schaefer, associate professor in the School of Biological Health Systems at Arizona State University.
Jill Love, a geriatric care manager and co-owner of Neurosessments.
A grant award enables the team to develop and test the reliability of a clinical version of the assessment, referred to as the Quick Behavioral Exam to Advance Neuropsychological Screening (qBEANS) which can be administered by a nurse or medical assistant during a senior adult’s routine visit to his or her doctor.
Fauth will use students at Utah State University as well as older adults in the community to test qBEANS in a mock clinical setting to determine if a new digital scoring system will be easy for medical technicians to navigate. Love will also test the product in a diverse ethnic sample in the Los Angeles area, assessing if a two-minute clinical test yields scores that are similar to the seven-minute laboratory test.
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