![[Translate to English:] Man sits in front of a tablet and colorful cubes are lying in front of him, on his head he has a net with which his brain waves are recorded, on the wall a screen with the writing "Braincheck" shines](fileadmin/mc/health_environment/images/News/2020_News_HIS_Braincheck2.jpg)
The diagnosis of dementia is still insufficient today. The FFG COIN project BrainCheck, coordinated by Hannes Perko (AIT), is developing a completely new approach to early diagnosis supported by AI.
Dementia is a widespread neurodegenerative disease. In Austria, 10 percent of the population over 65 years suffer from it, but younger people are not spared from this disease either. The effects range from memory loss to the complete loss of all mental abilities. This is a serious burden, not only for the patients, but also for the social environment and especially for the family. Current diagnostic methods for dementia are expensive, complex and protracted. Usually tests are only carried out in cases of serious suspicion, by which time the damage is usually already advanced. Today, dementia cannot be cured, but the course of the disease can be slowed down, so early detection is extremely important.
The BrainCheck project, coordinated by AIT, addresses precisely this issue and develops a simple and inexpensive early diagnosis, suitable for large-scale screening, e.g. for preventive examinations from a certain age. If dementia is detected early, therapy can be started early and the course of the disease is significantly delayed. This form of diagnosis will also be helpful in the development of drugs against dementia, allowing the right test groups to be found and the process to be accelerated.
With BrainCheck, the brain waves, i.e. the EEG, are evaluated with the help of Artificial Intelligence, while the affected persons perform cognitive tasks. This is where the experts at the Competence Unit Digital Health Information Systems, Center for Health & Bioresources, can contribute years of experience in the field of automatic evaluation of brain waves. With encevis, a medical device has already been developed that supports international medical personnel in the diagnosis and therapy of epilepsy through automated EEG analysis.
"Road to digital Austria" contribution: https://www.atv.at/road-to-digital-austria/staffel-2-folge-28/d3149135/