Northwestern Medicine has developed an iPad app that can quickly test for various medical conditions, including dementia, using over 50 tests that cover cognitive, motor, sensation, and emotional exams. This solution addresses the problem of lengthy medical testing, which discourages people from seeking answers to their health problems. Instead, according to study leader Richard Gershon, the app provides very brief tests essential in clinical care.
Scientist launch app that can screen special needs
The recently launched NIH Toolbox V3 iPad App is available for download from the Apple Store. It offers busy healthcare professionals an efficient means of evaluating a wide range of patients on time. The app can be handy in screening young children who require special needs assessment before the commencement of school or older adults who are concerned about their cognitive well-being.
Julie Hook, a research associate professor of medical social sciences at Feinberg and product manager of NIH Toolbox, stated that some components of the Toolbox are presently utilized at Northwestern to identify dementia. Hook also mentioned that the researchers at Northwestern are endeavoring to create a self-administered variant of these assessments, which patients can take in the waiting area just before their appointment, with the outcomes directly transmitted to their electronic medical record.
Toolbox app allows testing of cognitive function
The Toolbox app allows for efficient and standardized testing of cognitive, motor, sensory, and emotional functions. Initially developed for research purposes in 2012, it has been expanded to be an iPad app for clinical use. The app has been validated in 300 separate studies and is being used to assess long COVID patients at Northwestern University. The app also offers an olfactory test for people who have lost their sense of smell to catch Parkinson’s disease in its early stages possibly.
According to Dr. Igor Koralnik, the NIH Toolbox cognitive tests are beneficial in cognitive function testing for Neuro-COVID-19 clinic patients who report experiencing “brain fog.” These tests can provide adjusted results based on various demographics like age and education, informing patients about their performance and whether they would profit from cognitive rehabilitation.
