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A new project, "Remote Assessment of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Dementia", brings together Radim Boháček of CERGE-EI and researchers from Czech and Swiss institutions to develop a smartphone-based tool for studying potential early signs of neurodegenerative diseases.

The project is part of neuroSHARE and builds on earlier work carried out within SHARE, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. In the previous phase, researchers adapted health measurements originally used in clinical settings for use in a large population survey. They are now working to make these tests available remotely, so that older respondents can complete them on their own smartphones.

Rather than requiring users to install an application, the team is developing a web-based tool that can be opened through a link. It is designed to guide participants through a series of short tasks without the presence of a doctor, researcher or trained interviewer. The tool combines several simple, non-invasive measurements. It analyses speech and language, facial movements, colour vision, hearing and information related to sleep. The tests use standard smartphone features such as the microphone, camera, speakers and screen, without requiring specialised medical equipment.

According to Radim Boháček (CERGE-EI), the main value of the approach lies in combining information from several different areas. A single measurement may provide only a limited signal, while a combination of speech, movement, sensory and sleep-related indicators could offer more useful information for research. “The goal is to have something which is usable, practical,” Radim Boháček explains. “In Europe, health systems already have hospitals, specialists and definitions for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. But many countries are only beginning to face large-scale population ageing.”  

The tool is not intended to provide a diagnosis or replace a doctor. Its longer-term purpose would be to identify unusual patterns or possible warning signs that could indicate that a person should seek assessment from a medical specialist. 

The web application is already at an advanced stage of development and is currently being tested. The next step is a pilot study in the Czech Republic. Participants will complete the tests remotely and then repeat them in a controlled setting, allowing the researchers to compare the results. This comparison will help the team assess how measurements are affected by conditions outside a clinic or research centre. Differences between smartphones, background noise and the environment in which participants complete the tests may all influence the results.

After the Czech pilot, the researchers plan to revise the tool, translate it and test it in Switzerland. The Czech-Swiss cooperation will allow the team to examine how the tests work in different languages and settings. The measurements remain experimental and will require further validation. Establishing whether remotely collected indicators are clinically meaningful is expected to take several years, and the tool is therefore not yet intended for public screening or medical use.

The project also has a broader research purpose. Data collected through the smartphone tests can be connected with the extensive information already gathered within SHARE, including information about participants’ health, employment, education, family circumstances and cognitive abilities. This may help researchers study how potential early signs of neurodegenerative diseases relate to people’s health and life histories. It could also make it possible to collect comparable measurements from larger groups of older people without requiring every participant to visit a clinic or meet an interviewer in person.

In the longer term, the team aims to develop a standardised and internationally usable method for remote assessment. The project follows an open research approach, with the intention that the methodology could eventually be used and further developed by researchers and institutions in other countries. For now, the researchers are focused on determining whether tests transferred from clinical and face-to-face settings can produce reliable results when people complete them independently on their own phones.

Read the full interview here.