ClearSky Medical Diagnostics has developed an intelligent medical device that can objectively diagnose mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition often suggested as an early stage of dementia.
It is estimated that between five and 20 per cent of people aged over 65 have MCI, characterised by minor problems with cognition, such as memory or thinking.
ClearSky MD is a University of York spinout company that specialises in developing non-invasive medical devices for the diagnosis and monitoring of neurodegenerative conditions, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
The MCI-Monitor
Its prototype diagnostic device – MCI-Monitor – is worn by a patient while undertaking a standard clinical test known as ‘the reach and grasp task’. The kinematic characteristics of reach-to-grasp actions and the visual attention while performing the task are captured by the MCI-Monitor and measured using AI-powered technology.
Software based on unique biologically inspired computer algorithms provide an immediate result based on quantitative measurement of the patient’s visuospatial ability, memory, and executive function – three important cognitive functions.
ClearSky’s initial studies have suggested that MCI-Monitor is able to differentiate between Parkinson’s with normal cognition, PD-MCI (Parkinson’s Disease MCI) and PDD (Parkinson’s Disease Dementia).
“We are excited about the potential of MCI-Monitor to replace time-consuming and subjective conventional clinical tests to assist health care providers in making a diagnosis early, easily and accurately,” said Professor Stephen Smith, founder of ClearSky Medical Diagnostics.
“We’ve already applied our specialised ‘white-box’ machine learning algorithms across a number of devices to help diagnose and monitor neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and would love support to accelerate the development and testing of MCI-Monitor.”
The company, which already has launched two CE-marked diagnostic and monitoring devices PD-Monitor and LID-Monitor, is now seeking partners to collaborate on the development and launch of MCI-Monitor to the general population. ClearSky is also currently looking to achieve its third CE-marked product.
Interested partners are encouraged to get in touch.
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