Andrea Stocco received UW Population Health Initiative Tier 3 pilot grant
Congratulations to Andrea Stocco, Thomas Grabowski (Department of Radiology; Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center) and Nancy Spurgeon (Central Washington Area Health Education Center), who were awarded a University of Washington Population Health Initiative Tier 3 pilot grant this spring. Visit this link for more information about Tier 3 grants and projects: https://www.washington.edu/populationhealth/2024/06/06/initiative
“We are excited to be able to support these innovative, interdisciplinary projects as each seeks to scale its impact,” shared Ali H. Mokdad, the university’s chief strategy officer for population health and professor of health metrics sciences. “The projects collectively will take on some of the most pressing challenges we face to our health and well-being, including climate change, people experiencing homelessness and rural health.”
Title: Online Assessment and Monitoring of Memory Health in Rural Communities through Personalized Computational Modeling.
Project abstract:
The incidence of dementia is as much as 80% higher in rural than in urban areas, but up to 92% of rural cases remain undiagnosed until late stages due to limited access to diagnostic services. This massive diagnostic gap translates into significant health disparities, since the success of treatments often depends on early detection. This project aims to reduce the diagnostic gap through an innovative software for online, repeatable assessment of memory function. The software consists of an eight-minute adaptive memory test whose responses are fed to a computational model of long-term memory. The model’s parameters are fit to the individual’s behavior, providing a multidimensional profile of their visuomotor and memory function.
In partnership with the Central Washington Area Health Education Center (AHEC), we plan to deploy this tool in the rural communities of Douglas and Chelan counties, WA, recruiting up to 500 individuals in a longitudinal memory health monitoring program. Awareness of this program will be spread through a series of public events: lectures, seminars for health professionals, and brain-wellness fairs. A subset of participants whose memory is deteriorating rapidly will be offered the opportunity to enroll in the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center’s clinical registry to receive professional care and the possibility to enroll in further studies. If successful, this project will address all three pillars of population health: improving human health, increasing the resilience, and reducing the social and economic inequity of rural communities through advanced, online diagnostic monitoring of memory health.