Cognetivity Neurosciences Ltd. announced that it has reached a commercial agreement with Emirates Health Services (EHS) for the company’s Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) technology to be deployed as a screening tool for cognitive impairment throughout the United Arab Emirates.
Based in Dubai, EHS is the main federal provider of public healthcare services in the UAE. It functions as the operating arm of the country’s Ministry of Health and Prevention, running hundreds of healthcare centers and hospitals across the UAE and handling hundreds of thousands of outpatient visits each year.
At the heart of the partnership between EHS and Cognetivity lies CognICA™ – Cognetivity’s flagship medical device, powered by the Company’s ICA medical device technology which has recently been registered with the UAE Ministry of Health and cleared for medical use across the UAE. Under the terms of the new agreement, CognICA will be deployed in EHS-run clinics as a screening tool for measuring patients’ brain health and streamlining the detection of cognitive impairment.
The aim of this large-scale implementation is to enhance the timely diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Dementia is a serious and growing healthcare problem all over the world, with more than 55 million people currently living with the condition, but it poses a particular challenge to the UAE. A study published this year in The Lancet Public Health forecasts that the UAE will experience the second-highest percentage increase worldwide in the number of people living with dementia by 2050.
The decision by EHS to deploy Cognetivity’s cutting-edge, AI-powered technology to tackle the growing problem of dementia is characteristic of the country’s innovative and technology-led approach to achieving excellence in public healthcare. The country is known for being ambitious and proactive in pursuing its goal of developing a world-leading healthcare system: the speed and high uptake of its Covid-19 vaccination program drew international attention last year, while 2021 also saw the UAE become the second country in the world (behind the US) to approve the novel Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm™ for clinical treatment.
The ICA is perfectly suited to the task of population-wide screening in the UAE. It is a short and simple test, delivered on a tablet, that can be taken by a patient remotely or in person, without the need for administration by a specialist. This means that large-scale rollout of CognICA can be achieved very rapidly and does not need to be limited to specialist clinics. Due to its absence of learning effect and capacity to integrate with electronic health record systems, CognICA provides an end-to-end cognitive testing solution that can be applied throughout the patient pathway to greatly improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment.
Also published on Medium.
