Administration
The MCI Screen was developed in collaboration with primary care physicians and specialists in busy clinical practices who face the challenge of delivering high quality care to an ever-aging patient population. This collaborative effort has resulted in a product that fits pragmatically and economically into today’s fast-paced clinical practices.
Guided Assessment
The MCI Screen features fully guided administration of a 10-minute assessment that enforces consistency across different administrators. This ensures that longitudinal tracking of cognitive performance is not unnecessarily biased by variability in the assessment process.
Secure Online Access
Online access is securely brokered through SSL transactions and all data exchange and storage protocols comply with HIPAA guidelines. Because the MCI Screen runs online and requires no downloads to your local computer, you need not worry about system maintenance, product updates, or data backups. Furthermore, you may access your account and all of your patient information from any internet-enabled computer, tablet, or hand-held device, at any time.
Scoring
The MCI Screen’s high accuracy is achieved by applying sophisticated mathematical scoring methods to the well-validated protocols of the CERAD 10-word recall test and the ADAS-Cog 10-word recall test.
The traditional scoring for the CERAD and ADAS-Cog 10-word recall tests uses a cut-off score based on the number of words recalled during the delayed recall task. However, considering the 1 trillion (240) patterns of recalling 10 words across four trials (3 immediate recall trials and 1 free delayed recall trial), the use of only the delayed recall total score ignores almost all of the available information.
To improve on the traditional approach, the MCI Screen draws upon the subject’s complete recall pattern across all four recall trials, and uses computerized analysis to optimize the scoring method. It then compares the optimized score to the normal range for the patient’s demographic peer group. In this way, physicians can identify those patients who are concerned about cognitive changes that are consistent with “normal aging” while also identifying those with “below-normal” cognitive function who should undergo further clinical evaluation.
Reporting
Immediate report generation allows real time input to the physician enabling a high standard of clinical feedback. It also enables timely reimbursement for a cognitive assessment procedure.
The MCI Screen report includes:
- overall impression (Normal vs. Below Normal)
- MPI score on a scale of 0-100
- item scores for each cognitive task
- clinical discussion based on peer-reviewed literature
All assessment results for an individual patient can be compared and tracked using the system’s longitudinal view function. All past assessment reports are accessible through easy pull-down menus and can be viewed, printed, or stored as PDFs at any time from any internet-enabled computer, tablet, or hand-held device.
Memory Performance Index
Through a sophisticated analysis of working memory and short-term memory function, the Memory Performance Index (MPI) quantifies a patient’s pattern of recall on a scaled range from 0-100 and classifies the score based on norms for the patient’s demographic peer group.
This allows for intuitive comprehension of memory performance and aids monitoring of longitudinal change.
Compared to measures of total item recall, the MPI provides a more comprehensive measure of working and episodic memory. Data collected on over 30,000 normally aging subjects showed no correlation between age and total item recall. However, when MPI scores were plotted against age, a clear and consistent pattern emerged in accordance with age-related changes in memory function. This demonstrates the greater insight and clinical value of the MPI compared to simple measures of total item recall.