Fast-expanding Cognetivity has secured a deal with the Dubai Health Authority, which will see its pioneering technology deployed across the busiest dementia clinics in Dubai.
The authority will use Cognetivity’s Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) to help screen the rapidly-growing elderly population who are at risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
The ICA will be used in clinical care to support the detection and diagnosis of patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer’s Disease, with the goal of enhancing early diagnosis and enabling timely access to treatment.
The commercial partnership in Dubai is Cognetivity’s latest expansion in the UAE, having recently secured an agreement with Emirates Health Services to roll out its ICA.
The Dubai Health Authority has made developing the elderly care system one of its priorities in recent years, having estimated the elderly proportion of the population in the UAE to rise from 6 per cent in 2017 to 29 per cent by 2050.
Cognetivity’s ICA is well placed to support Dubai’s early diagnosis efforts with its high sensitivity to early-stage cognitive impairment, which has been demonstrated in clinical trials and numerous peer-reviewed publications.
As a computerised test delivered on tablets, the ICA is highly scalable and is suitable for rapid implementation in healthcare systems throughout the world on account of its language independence and freedom from cultural bias.
“We’re thrilled about this deployment,” said Dr Sina Habibi, Cognetivity’s CEO.
“It represents a fantastic opportunity to contribute to Dubai’s ambitious public health strategy and have a major, positive impact on outcomes for patients, which has always been our number-one goal.
“The first six months since our Middle East launch have been hugely positive. It’s inspiring and encouraging to be collaborating with public health officials and clinicians who clearly recognise the need to rethink how we tackle the dementia problem, beginning with detection and diagnosis.
“It’s particularly exciting that this project lays the groundwork for even larger, population-wide screening initiatives.
”With its relatively small size and tech-centred ethos, the UAE is the perfect environment for us to trial such programmes, which we believe we can one day bring to countries as large as the US and China.”
