Enhancing utility of neuropsychological evaluation for earlier and effective diagnosis of dementia in Parkinson’s disease (PDCogniCare)

Neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s disease create the single largest increase in the social and economic impact in Australia, and this is expected to grow with the ageing population. Dementia is observed in 80% of people living with advanced stage Parkinson’s disease; however, there are inadequate opportunities for early and effective diagnosis of dementia in current clinical practice.

Our goal is to develop and implement a new technology-assisted intervention, PDCogniCare, for early and improved diagnosis of dementia in people living with Parkinson’s disease.

What are we trying to achieve?

There are 3 main parts of our research project:

Study 1 - Guidelines development study: Develop and implement best practice guidelines for cognitive evaluation in Parkinson’s disease for an improved diagnosis of dementia and mild cognitive impairment.

Study 2 - Digital platform study: Co-design, develop and test a digital platform that enables clinicians to track routine cognitive assessments according to guidelines over the course of PD for earlier diagnosis of dementia, and identification of patients at high-risk of developing dementia.

Study 3 - Implementation study: Examine the feasibility, effectiveness, and implementation of PDCogniCare in two hospitals. In-built process evaluation will examine implementation within Parkinson’s disease clinical care, psychological services, and psychological training.

How can I participate?

We are currently recruiting for Study 1 - Guidelines Development Study.

In this study, we would like to explore how people with Parkinson’s disease currently access and experience cognitive evaluations within clinical services (e.g., neurology, psychology) and post-evaluation support, and ways in which these experiences could be improved. This will help us to create best practice clinical guidelines, delivery of cognitive assessments, and cognitive review using a digital platform.

We are inviting the following people to join the study:

living experience experts, including people living with Parkinson’s disease, their family and carers who have taken part in cognitive or neuropsychological testing related to Parkinson’s disease.

What would be required of you?

You have the option to choose from one of the following:

Online focus group discussion: You will take part in a focus group discussion with approximately 6-8 people who are living with Parkinson’s disease, and carers or family members. You will discuss experiences with cognitive assessment, dementia diagnosis, post-diagnostic support and how all of these experiences could have been improved.

Online questionnaire: The recommendations from the focus group discussion will be summarised into a questionnaire which will be distributed across Australia.

Enhancing utility of neuropsychological evaluation for earlier and effective diagnosis of dementia in Parkinson’s disease (PDCogniCare)

What are we trying to achieve?

How can I participate?

What would be required of you?

Reimbursements

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