title: A Smartphone App to Screen for HIV-Related Neurocognitive Impairment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neurocognitive Impairment (NCI) is one of the most common complications of HIV-infection, and has serious medical and functional consequences. However, screening for it is not routine and NCI often goes undiagnosed. Screening for NCI in HIV disease faces numerous challenges, such as limited screening tests, the need for specialized equipment and apparatuses, and highly trained personnel to administer, score and interpret screening tests. To address these challenges, we developed a novel smartphone-based screening tool,NeuroScreen, to detect HIV-related NCI that includes an easy-to-use graphical user interface with ten highly automated neuropsychological tests.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examineNeuroScreen's: 1) acceptability among patients and different potential users; 2) test construct and criterion validity; and 3) sensitivity and specificity to detect NCI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty HIV+ individuals were administered a gold-standard neuropsychological test battery, designed to detect HIV-related NCI, andNeuroScreen. HIV+ test participants and eight potential provider-users ofNeuroScreenwere asked about its acceptability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a high level of acceptability ofNeuroScreenby patients and potential provider-users. Moderate to high correlations between individualNeuroScreentests and paper-and-pencil tests assessing the same cognitive domains were observed.NeuroScreenalso demonstrated high sensitivity to detect NCI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NeuroScreen, ahighly automated, easy-to-use smartphone-based screening test to detect NCI among HIV patients and usable by a range of healthcare personnel could help make routine screening for HIV-related NCI feasible. WhileNeuroScreendemonstrated robust psychometric properties and acceptability, further testing with larger and less neurocognitively impaired samples is warranted.
authors.affiliation: HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Reuben N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.affiliation: Envisage IT, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Envisage IT, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Andries
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ehlers
authors.affiliation: The Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Joska
authors.affiliation: ASCENT Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Kevin G F
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Rhonda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Burgess
authors.affiliation: The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Desiree
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Byrd
authors.affiliation: The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morgello
keywords: HIV; application; neurocognitive; smartphone; test