An Avatar Aid in the Memory Clinic (AAA-MC)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Avatar Aid in the Memory Clinic (AAA-MC)
IRAS ID
200293
Contact name
Daniel Blackburn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 14 days
Research summary
We and another group in Liverpool have highlighted that neurology-led memory clinics are seeing an increasing number of patients without signs of dementia (Bell et al., 2015; Larner, 2014; Menon & Larner, 2011). It should be possible for patients with Depressive Pseudodemntia (DPD) and Functional Memory Disorder (FMD) to be managed effectively in primary care. Better screening procedures prior to referral to the specialist memory would allow more patients to receive the most appropriate care more quickly. We recently described a novel approach likely to be capable of improving the screening procedure: We identified a number of features in the interactional behaviour of patients with neurodegenerative memory complaints on the one hand and FMD on the other which should improve the differential diagnosis. In this study we want to develop a more highly automated system, which will build on these findings. Researchers elsewhere have used the speech recognition software system Watson from IBM to carry out speech analyses to facilitate the diagnosis of dementia (Konig et al 2015). However, their system was based on the automated analysis of neuropsychological screening tests. Our study will be the first to use the analysis of more complex interactional behaviour (the patient’s responses to an avatar) to complement simple neuropsychological screening tests and achieve greater accuracy of non-expert screening procedures for dementia.
REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0737
Date of REC Opinion
20 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion