WCG VeraSci is pleased to share results from a recent study examining the feasibility and reliability of remote, in-home self-administration of cognitive tests using the Pathway ePRO platform.

Sixty-one older adults with and without subjective cognitive decline completed remote and in-person testing using self-administered versions of select cognitive tests within the Brief Assessment of Cognition (BAC). Remote and in-person testing sessions were completed approximately 1 week apart, with half of all participants completing the remote testing first.

Results were compelling and suggest that remote cognitive testing is feasible, reliable and sensitive to objective cognitive impairments in individuals with subjective cognitive decline. In all but one cognitive domain assessed, measures of test-retest reliability (absolute agreement ICCs) across settings exceeded .7, even for tests employing alternate forms. No differences between remote and in-person testing were observed for measures of processing speed (BAC symbol coding), visuospatial working memory or verbal fluency. Comparisons between participants with and without subjective decline demonstrated significant and reliable differences between groups that were reliable across remote and in-person settings.

Initial results of this study were presented at the 14th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) November 9-12, 2021. The poster presentation is available here.

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Presented at the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM) Annual Scientific Meeting Virtual Edition, April 6-9, 2021

While episodic memory impairment is often the hallmark of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), impairment may also be observed in executive function, attention, language, and visuospatial skills. The aim of the present work is to assess the utility of the tablet-based BAC to identify and quantify episodic memory and other deficits in MCI due to AD.

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Presented at the American Academy of Neurology Virtual Annual Meeting, April 17-22, 2021

The VRFCAT-SL was administered to a sample of 29 patients with Parkinson’s disease during clinical neuropsychological evaluation. Based on the analysis presented in this poster, the VRFCAT-SL appears to provide a useful measure of cognitive functional capacity that is not confounded by Parkinson’s disease motor symptoms. Completion time of the VRFCAT-SL is associated with visual memory, sustained attention, and set-switching.

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Presented at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) Digital Event, November 4-7, 2020

Integration of wearable devices into regulated clinical trials for the assessment of cognition and function continues to be a topic of growing interest. If appropriately implemented, measurements from validated wearable technologies have the potential to revolutionize the conduct of clinical trials by facilitating development of site-less clinical trial designs. In order to be truly informative, however, endpoints collected by these devices must undergo the same clinical and technological validation process currently required by other currently accepted tools. This poster reports preliminary findings from an on-going NIH-funded study examining the relationship between real-time measurements of gait and actigraphy collected by industry grade wearable devices and established cognitive and functional endpoints with sensitivity to decline early in the AD continuum.

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Presented at the ASCP Annual Meeting May 29-31,2020 Virtual Conference

Depression and psychosis clinical trials share a crucial commonality of perpetually and alarmingly high placebo and nocebo responses. At ASCP in May 2019, Cohen, et al. presented data indicating that the Placebo-Control Reminder Script (PCRS) significantly reduced the placebo effect among subjects in a major depressive episode (MDE). Since then, the same study design, was applied among subjects with a psychotic disorder. This poster presents these data and the combined results from both populations.

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Presented at the ASCP Annual Meeting May 29-31,2020 Virtual Conference

Integration of wearable devices into regulated clinical trials for the assessment of cognition and functioning continues to be a topic of growing interest. If appropriately implemented, measurements from validated wearable technologies have the potential to revolutionize the conduct of clinical trials by facilitating the development of site-less clinical trial designs. In order to be truly informative, however, endpoints collected by these devices must undergo the same clinical and technological validation process required by other currently accepted tools. This poster presents preliminary data from an ongoing study examining the reliability of industry-grade pressure sensing insoles for the real-time capture of gait measures in older adults, and the relationship between gait measures and standard measures of cognition and functioning.

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