Medopad has partnered with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals to validate, scale and potentially commercialise the ReVeRe platform as a novel digital biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease.
The goal of the collaboration is to implement a home-based automated cognitive tool that could allow for reliable assessment of early cognitive decline in a real-world environment.
ReVeRe enables remote and automated assessment and monitoring of verbal memory in individuals at risk of Alzheimer’s. It uses an iPad to automate the administration and scoring of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), alongside other tests of attention and executive function which are relevant in the early stages of the condition.
Participants in a RAVLT test are given a list of 15 unrelated words repeated over five different trials, and are then asked to repeat them. Another list of 15 words is then given. Following this second list, the subject must repeat back the original list of 15 words. They must repeat the original list again after 30 minutes.
The test is designed to evaluate short-term auditory-verbal memory, rate of learning, learning strategies, retroactive and proactive interference, confabulation of confusion in memory processes, retention of information and differences between learning and retrieval.
Medopad CEO and founder Dan Vahdat said: “We are excited to further expand the validation for potential commercialisation of this technology. Once we have concluded implementation and final testing, we aim to be able to screen an entire nation for Alzheimer’s disease at low cost.
“This project is one of the many Medopad is currently undertaking and we see strategic collaborations like this as essential in accelerating us to achieve our vision of creating a world where people can live longer, fuller lives.”
Medopad will use its experience in implementing and scaling digital healthcare solutions throughout the UK’s National Health Service and other international health systems to deploy the technology across the UK and China.
The number of people with dementia doubles every 20 years, with the total number predicted to reach 75 million in 2030. Clinicians lack both the methodology to diagnose patients at scale and a concrete understanding of the diseases’ progression.
