Remote Neuropsychological Assessment of Patients With Neurological Disorders and Injuries

Summary

For the last decades, many aspects of human life have been altered by digital technology. For health care, this have opened a possibility for patients who have difficulties travelling a long distance to a hospital to meet with their health care providers over different digital platforms. With an increased digital literacy, and an aging population often living in the countryside, far from hospitals or other health care settings, an increasing need for digitalization of meetings between patients and health care personnel is inevitable.

However, neuropsychological assessment is one sort of health care not possible to directly transfer into digital form. These evaluations are most often performed with well validated tests, only to be used in a paper-pencil form with a specially trained psychologist during physical meetings.

The aim of this project is to investigate whether a newly developed digital neuropsychological test battery can be used to perform remote assessments of cognitive function in patients with neurological injuries and impairments. To this date, there are no such test batteries available in the Swedish language.

Mindmore (www.mindmore.com) is a test system developed in Sweden, performing neuropsychological tests on a tablet, but still with the psychologist present in the room. This system is now evolving into offering the possibility for the patient to perform the test in their own home, using their own computer or tablet. The aim of the present research project is to validate this latter system (Mindmore Distance), using the following research questions:

1. Are the tests in Mindmore Distance equivalent to traditional neuropsychological tests in patients with traumatic brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, epilepsy, and brain tumor?
2. Can the results from Mindmore Distance be transferred into neuropsychological profiles that can be used in diagnostics for specific patient groups?
3. How do the patients experience undergoing a neuropsychological evaluation on their own compared to traditional neuropsychological assessment in a physical meeting with a psychologist?

Conditions

• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Stroke
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Parkinson Disease
• Epilepsy
• Brain Tumor

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Neuropsychological Assessment

To validate Mindmore Distance (MD), the following standard neuropsychological tests will be used in a testing session with a psychologist: * Wordlist 1 and 2 from WMS-III (Wechsler, 1997). Equivalent to RAVLT in MD * Coding from WAIS-IV (Wechsler, 2008). Equivalent to SDPT in MD * Block Span from WMS-III (Wechsler, 1997). Equivalent to CBT in MD * Trail Making Test from D-KEFS (Delis et al., 2001). Equivalent to TMT-Click in MD * Color-Word Interference Test from D-KEFS. Equivalent to Stroop in MD * Verbal fluency from D-KEFS. Equivalent to FAS in MD All participants will complete some questionnaires: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond \& Snaith, 1983); Insomnia Severity Index (Bastien, Vallieres, \& Morin, 2001); Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (Broadbent, Cooper, FitzGerald, \& Parkes, 1982); Perceived Stress Scale (Levenstein et al., 1993); Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (Smets, Garssen, Bonke, \& De Haes, 1995).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Västerbotten County Council, Sweden

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Umeå University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nils Berginström, PhD · Umeå Universitet, Department of Psychology

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-03-10

Primary Completion

2027-12-31

Completion

2027-12-31

Countries

• Sweden

Study Locations