Feasibility of telecognitive assessment in dementia.
Videoconferencing (VC) technology has been used successfully to provide psychiatric services to patients in rural and otherwise underserved settings. VC-based diagnostic interviewing has shown good agreement with conventional face-to-face diagnosis of dementia in several investigations, but extension of this technology to neurocognitive assessment has received little attention. To this end, the authors administered a brief battery of common neuropsychological tests via VC technology (telecognitive) and traditional face-to-face methods to 14 older persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 19 persons with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). Highly similar test scores were obtained when participants were tested in-person or via VC. Telecognitive assessment appears to be a valid means to conduct neuropsychological evaluation of older adults with cognitive impairment. Furthermore, continued development of VC technology has implications for expanding neuropsychological assessment options in under-served populations.
Cullum
C Munro
CM
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA. munro.cullum@utsouthwestern.edu
Weiner
Myron F
MF
Gehrmann
Helena R
HR
Hynan
Linda S
LS
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D019114:Remote Consultation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D049269:Videoconferencing