How can the MyCognitionPro holistic digital health platform for monitoring and preventing cognitive decline be successfully implemented into the real-world context of people experiencing cognitive decline?

Poster presentation, abstract later printed in a revised form in Alzheimer's & Dementia 18, S2 (December 2022). Text of this version printed below:

MyCognitionPRO is a CE-marked digital health platform, offered as a subscription product by Beingwell Ltd; designed to help users self-manage their cognitive health by combining cognitive assessment with personalised gamified training games. Reviews have highlighted computerised cognitive training as an effective non-pharmacological intervention for enhancing cognitive functioning and quality of life of people with MCI or mild-dementia (Hill et al., 2017; Bahar-Fuchs et al., 2019). In a recent RCT, a now obsolete desktop version of MyCognitionPRO was used effectively by 21 Parkinson's-MCI patients (aged 40-70 years) and caused a reversal in cognitive decline as compared to matched controls (van de Weijer et al., 2020). However, several real-world trials investigating the effectiveness of the app-based platform for people experiencing cognitive decline outside laboratory conditions indicate high rates of non-adoption and non-adherence in target users. The value of a digital health intervention is multi-dimensional, relying on the willingness of end-users, the capacity of features as well as its successful implementation in wider healthcare pathways (Kolasa & Kozinski, 2020). This mixed-methods feasibility study explores the differing needs, opinions and variability of core stakeholders, representing multiple perspectives (people over 50 years-old with early-stage cognitive decline and their carers). Guided by digital-health evaluation frameworks, quantitative data (app engagement and performance data) and qualitative data (e.g. observation of user-experience and interviews) are analysed to assess feasibility. Analysis indicates key issues with acceptability, usability and accessibility of the MyCognition apps in this context, modelling factors that predict poor engagement as well as reporting the characteristics of subpopulations for which the MyCognitionPRO platform works best. Results are synthesised into a user-centred product roadmap, providing recommendations for app developments, further user trials, coproduction and efficacy research. A staged evidence-generation strategy is necessary to ensure the effective launch of a usable, evidence-based version of the platform that is tailored to user-needs and implementation into relevant markets for the purpose of monitoring and preventing cognitive decline in people over 50years-old. [Abstract copyright: © 2022 the Alzheimer's Association.]