Can Typing Patterns Tell If A Person Has Alzheimer's?
Alzheimer's can be perceived in the early stages when the best treatments can be easily obtained. There's a technology that can evaluate a person's typing for signs of motor conditions such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.
Early detection can be difficult because it's usually confused with normal signs of aging. Besides, the symptoms might appear slowly that the affected person wasn't able to recognize.
The team behind the neuroQWERTY technology is considering developing into the extremely difficult area of dementia. As many disease areas gradually adopt digital forms of treatment and diagnosis, neurology remains stuck in an "analog era."
The neuroQWERTY technology was developed to identify early signs of motor deterioration in diseases like Parkinson's disease. It is done by monitoring the way people type on mobile phones or computers. Regardless, nQ knows that typing is both influenced by motor and cognitive processes.
It includes evaluating the pauses between typing distinct language events or units. Additionally, it involves the semantic and syntactic complexity of what has been typed as well as the keystroke dynamics according to the physical location of the key on the keyboard.
"Neurology is particularly slow in digital adoption, partly because it is not as well understood as diseases like oncology and diabetes, and there are fewer standards against which to validate technologies," stated nQ Medical's chief data scientist, Teresa Arroyo Gallego
She noted that cognition is primarily determined through subjective examinations as well as patient-reported results. The tests are also exorbitant as well as time-intensive since it needs an expert to be with the patient. Moreover, the test needs to be done in a clinic, which makes the patient aware that he's being monitored.
The neuroQWERTY technology can establish the likelihood of remote and self-monitoring for patients. This has become growingly crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the embrace of digital technology increases and doctor's workloads have become profound.
