Mild cognitive impairment (or MCI) is an early indicator of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, but diagnosing it can be difficult, especially in communities without easy access to neurologists.
That’s why a team of MU researchers created a portable device that helps identify it — for cheap.
“We need to expand our ability to screen and identify individuals that have mild cognitive impairment, and right now, most of those diagnoses come from psychology and neurology, which are specialties that often individuals in rural areas don't have access to,” said associate professor Jamie Hall.
Hall is part of a team of researchers that created the Mizzou Point-of-Care Assessment system (or MPASS). Participants of their study, mostly older adults, were asked to complete three activities: standing still, walking and standing up from a bench, while also counting backwards in intervals of seven.
The researchers use balance plates and cameras to determine the body's position. The data from their performance was fed to a machine learning model, which correctly identified individuals with MCI 83% of the time.
While having MCI doesn't mean someone will be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, it is something medical professionals will aim to slow down. The effects of MCI can be treated and potentially reversed, but the medications that reverse it require a diagnosis. One study found that MCI is detected and diagnosed in only 8% of cases.
“It's important that we develop ways that we can identify people at risk for cognitive impairment, so that when these drugs come to market and other interventions come to market, we're able to get those people identified and get those people that early intervention,” said Hall.
The research team was composed of three doctoral students and four undergraduate students, but over the last three years, there have been about 12 undergraduates working on the project. The software they used was programmed by an undergraduate computer science student.
“These are complex problems, and it takes a team of persons with different expertise to solve it now by working with this team,” said associate professor Trent Guess, who is also director of the Mizzou Motion Analysis Center. “The fact is that we are developing something real that's not just academic exercise. This is something real that's going to help people.”
MPASS is being tested at MU Health Care facilities and in the next few months, the researchers hope to implement the device in other retirement and senior centers in mid-Missouri.
