Abstract:
Digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to revolutionize cognitive health monitoring and Alzheimer’s disease prevention. Current high-burden, clinic-based assessments can be augmented by passive engagement technologies—leveraging smartphones and their array of embedded sensors for continuous, unobtrusive data collection. At the Framingham Heart Study and BU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, multi-sensor approaches combining smartphone applications, digital voice, eye-tracking, and in-home monitoring are being deployed to detect subtle cognitive and behavioral changes.
Through the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, a global minimal viable protocol has been launched, integrating digital and blood-based biomarkers across diverse populations. Data sharing via the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative (ADDI) is accelerating discovery through open challenges and collaborative analytics. This paradigm shift emphasizes inclusivity, rethinking traditional study designs, and advancing from digital phenotyping to truly dynamic, multi-dimensional digital biomarkers. The long-term goal is early detection and intervention—ultimately enabling prevention and reducing healthcare costs globally.
Biography:
- Rhoda Au, PhD, Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Neurology, Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and School of Public Health
- Rhoda Au is Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Neurology, Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and School of Public Health. She serves as one of PIs of the Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program and is Director of Neuropsychology. She is also Director of Global Cohort Development for the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative. Her work includes using technologies to promote equal opportunity science and to develop and validate multi‐sensor digital biomarkers. Her long‐term research objective is to enable global solutions that move the primary focus of health technologies from precision medicine to a broader emphasis on precision brain health.