The 10th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) conference was held in Boston last week. The event attended by world leading experts in Alzheimer’s disease clinical research focused on the earliest stages of the disease, and how best to support clinical trials to successfully target this prodromal phase.
The CTAD conference brings together the top Alzheimer’s clinical investigators, biopharmaceutical and technology companies to discuss current progress and plans for the next generation of research.
Cambridge Cognition Holdings PLC (LON:COG) Francesca Cormack, Kenton Zavitz and Nick Taptiklis, contributed to the conversation, presenting data which opens up new possibilities in assessing Alzheimer’s trial participants online, improving patient recruitment and using automatic speech recognition to enhance clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease.
The use of web-based assessments to involve patients in clinical trials
Francesca Cormack compared in-person and web-based computerised cognitive testing using CANTAB. CANTAB is a gold-standard cognitive assessment tool: the world’s most validated research software. Dr Cormack discussed the reliable, remote delivery of CANTAB. In-person assessments present a massive time-burden for participants, and resources-burden for the study team. Therefore, the finding that the web-based assessments allow for the same high-quality results as in-person assessments presents a huge step forward for involving patients in clinical trials. Dr Cormack particularly focused on the robust, web-based delivery of Paired Associated Learning (PAL): a sensitive measure of episodic memory. Findings from this study are illustrated in figure 1.1.
