Oral Candidacy – John Templeton

Current clinical assessments such as the Dean-Woodcock Neuropsychological AssessmentSystem (DWNAS), the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), and the Boston Diagnostic AphasiaExamination (BDAE) are the current gold standard for doctors and clinicians in the preliminary assessment and monitoring of individuals with neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, a transition of these assessments to mobile devices for the benefits of their configurable built-in sensors, scoring, interpretation, and storage capabilities has occurred. As mobile technology becomes increasingly accepted in healthcare among both users and clinicians, the ability to use device information (e.g. device positional data, screen interactions, and application usage) for subject monitoring also increases. With this transition of pen-and-paper style clinical tests to mobile platforms, the current ”gold standard” of testing should be updated to include these new beneficial, objective, capabilities. The primary goal is to gain a better understanding of the interplay between interventional therapies and patient assessments. The proposed approach for updating the previous versions of testing, to a comprehensive, systematic implementation of mobile technology, is necessary for understanding this cross-sectional information. The systematic approach includes the implementation of a mobile device’s sensors, scoring, storage, and usage capabilities as well as the formation of a system based approach using wearable devices and self-reporting techniques, to allow for higher-quality, objective, real-time data collections and analysis. This new standard should be intended to aid clinicians accurately and objectively diagnose neurological conditions, map the development of these conditions over time, and monitor individuals while providing them with efficient, evidence-based, personalized, rehabilitation programs.