Medical and NHS experts from Sheffield have risen to global acclaim with a patient engagement award for a digital dementia assessment tool.
The innovation — known as CognoSpeak — uses AI alongside speech and language analysis to detect memory problems at an early stage and thus predict dementia.
The tool won a global Made with Patients award from the Patient Engagement Open Forum. The Made with Patients award is the first worldwide accolade that exclusively celebrates innovators in patient engagement.
The award was given thanks to collaborative work done with ethnic minority communities to ensure the accuracy of the tool when assessing those who do not have English as their first language.
To ensure said accuracy, project partners worked with the Sheffield Israac Somali Community Centre to help train CognoSpeak with local research champions.
Project partners include:
- University of Sheffield
- Devices for Dignity
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
- NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Therapy Box
“We are immensely honoured to have won this ‘Made with Patients’ global award,” said patient and public involvement lead at NIHR Devices for Dignity HealthTech Research Centre, Lise Sproson.
“Dementia affects people of all cultures and backgrounds, and by creating a meaningful relationship with the local community we were able to ensure CognoSpeak is acceptable, accessible and as accurate as possible for those speaking languages other than English as a first language.”
The innovation works by asking memory-probing questions, which take inspiration from those that might be asked in an outpatient consultation, and conducting cognitive tests like picture descriptions and verbal fluency assessments.
Academic neurologist at the University of Sheffield, Dr Dan Blackburn, said: “It is a real honour to win this award. By looking for patterns in conversation we can detect early stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease without the need for patients to attend in-person appointments.
“CognoSpeak could be a real game-changer in the way GPs and other primary care workers distinguish between those likely to be suffering with dementia and so best referred to a specialist memory clinic, and those whose memory problems are due to other factors.”
The project has recruited over 1,100 participants from across the UK to develop CognoSpeak and is currently working with the South Asian community in Sheffield and Bradford, as well as the Chinese community in Sheffield to further engage with hard-to-reach groups.
Image credit: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
