6 days ago
How AI Could Change the Way Doctors Diagnose and Treat Dementia
It's no secret that artificial intelligence has seeped into different areas of life. But while your eyes may glaze over hearing about how AI impacts the latest Google search results or the customer service industry, there's one area that's worth paying attention to: AI's potential impact on dementia care.
A growing body of research suggests that advances in AI could help revolutionize the way doctors diagnose and treat dementia in the future—and it may even help ease the burden on caregivers, too. That has a massive potential impact on the population, given that dementia affects more than 6 million Americans.
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It's important to point out that the use of AI for dementia diagnoses and care is still in early stages. But doctors note one major impact is the likelihood of making quality dementia care accessible to everyone. Here's where things stand right now, plus where doctors see things headed.
As of right now, there is no officially approved AI tool that can be used in a doctor's office to help diagnose patients with dementia. But AI has the potential to help with a huge problem doctors who treat dementia face, says Vijaya B. Kolachalama, PhD, a computational medicine researcher and associate professor in the department of medicine at Boston University.
'We don't have many dementia experts, and the field is desperate to get more,' he says. 'Trying to get an appointment with a neurologist takes months and, for some cases, that may be too late.'
Kolachalama says there are 'only a handful of behavioral neurologists' who work at specialty centers and treat patients with dementia and cognitive impairment. 'Their calendars are completely booked,' he says.
But there are private neurology practices or clinical centers with expertise to treat dementia, Kolachalama points out. 'Then you have primary care physicians—they may not have the expertise and resources to diagnose these conditions,' he says.
As things stand right now, people with cognitive issues will usually see their primary care physician, get a referral, then have to wait for months to see a specialist, Kolachalama says. But the right AI tools could potentially help use the same knowledge a behavioral neurologist (i.e., a top-tier dementia specialist) has to create a data set which would allow doctors with less experience to make a proper dementia diagnosis, he says.
'We've been on this quest for some time now,' Kolachalama says. 'We are making really good progress, but there is still a lot of work to be done.'
AI is mostly being used in research settings, explains C. Munro Cullum, PhD, a neuropsychologist and professor of psychiatry, neurology and neurological surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. 'I've used it in a couple of studies,' he says. 'We are in the early stages of using this technology.'
AI is mostly used to mine electronic medical records to look for predictors of dementia, Cullum says. 'But these are not tools that are out there in practitioners' hands,' he adds.
Still, AI is 'revolutionizing' dementia diagnoses by analyzing medical data, like brain scans, genetic profiles and cognitive test results, faster and more accurately than ever before, says Gopi Battineni, PhD, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Camerino in Italy. 'We can detect early signs of Alzheimer's or other dementias with machine learning models years before symptoms show up in MRIs or PET scans,' Battineni says. 'I am confident that this will allow for earlier intervention and more tailored care.'
AI can even help alleviate some patients' fears or encourage them to see a doctor, according to Dr, Clifford Segil, a neurologist at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. He points out that patients usually use AI to look up their own symptoms and then share what they've learned with him.
Segil says he encourages patients to find any diagnoses that concerns them. 'Then, I evaluate them for the diagnoses I am worried about,' he says.
For now, AI's biggest role in dementia care is analyzing 'vast amounts' of medical data, says Adrian Owen, PhD, a neuroscientist at Western University and chief scientific officer at Creyos Health.
'AI can detect subtle changes that may elude humans—even patterns of speech or handwriting,' he says. 'There are already places where AI has matched or exceeded experts.'
AI is already being used by some caregivers—often without them realizing it—and its role in supporting families affected by dementia is only expected to grow. The goal, for now, is to help provide more access to proper dementia diagnoses and treatment to people at earlier stages, Kolachalama says.
'AI can help identify if a person has some form of cognitive impairment, and then we're trying to see what may be causing it,' he explains. 'Is it Alzheimer's? Depression? Anxiety? … There are multiple things that can cause dementia at the same time.'
AI can even provide better at-home monitoring, Cullum says. 'Some in-home monitors are looking at how people are walking around their home environment and searching for predictors,' he says.
Battineni agrees: 'A monitoring system detects falls, wandering or unusual behavior and alerts caregivers.'
Virtual assistants can remind patients to take medication or when their next appointment is thanks to AI, Battineni says. Care coordination platforms can make communication easier between family, doctors and care teams, he adds.
For now, AI is mostly helping provide information for caregivers, Segil says.
'There is a large burden placed on caregivers of patients with memory loss, dementia and the elderly,' he says. 'I am hopeful AI shares common sense and best practice ideas like emphasizing mobility as we age.'
Ultimately, doctors are hopeful that AI will help transform the way dementia is diagnosed and treated—and even help ease the burden for caregivers. 'I think AI is very likely to reshape the entire landscape of dementia care,' Owen says.
