The Problem
Existing tests are slow and unable to distinguish between types of dementia
Dementia is the term used to describe a set of symptoms associated with progressive loss of brain function. There are over 100 forms of dementia, none of which can be completely cured yet although 45% of risks are modifiable and 2 disease-modified drugs have been approved recently.
Supporting every person with dementia, through formal care and the informal care supplied by family and friends, costs the global economy billions every year.
Early and specific diagnosis is essential to reducing these demands and improving outcomes for dementia patients by providing the information needed to design tailored treatment plans that can delay progression and reduce severity of symptoms, resulting in a higher quality of life for dementia patients. Existing diagnostic methods, such as behavioural testing and cognitive scoring, can only differentiate between types of dementia when significant time is spent with each patient across multiple appointments.
This time-intensive approach increases costs and delays effective treatment, in turn creating a higher burden of care and cost to support. It can take years to get a more specific diagnosis and, although brain imaging techniques such as PET and MRI are available, they are costly and only effective when it comes to late-stage diagnosis. Even upcoming blood biomarker solutions are only effective for one type of dementia - Alzheimer’s disease.