Project description
Novel fast and affordable dementia diagnosis
Dementia is a devastating neurodegenerative disease whose progression leads to a loss of all mental abilities, making patients completely dependent on constant care. The disease is incurable, however there are treatments that, if prescribed early, are capable of postponing the patient's mental decline for a few years. Current diagnostics either cannot detect early brain changes or are too expensive and invasive to be available for large-scale early application, delaying the diagnosis time and making treatment much less effective. The EU-funded BTD project supports development of a novel early dementia diagnosis by using electroencephalography. The project proposes a mobile, easy-to-use device for dementia onset diagnosis. The most challenging and critical part of the project includes the design of the algorithm that calculates recorded brain signal data and returns a simple score as a marker that indicates if a person is suffering from dementia.
Objective
Dementia is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that causes tremendous suffering for patients and their families. The disease’s relentless progression leads to a loss of all mental abilities, making patients completely dependent on constant care and supervision. Even though the disease is incurable, there are treatments available that can postpone the patient`s mental decline for a few years.
Treatment is most beneficial if prescribed early, as soon as the first symptoms occur. However, the most common diagnostic methods, such as brain scanners, cerebrospinal fluid testing and clinical observation, either cannot detect early brain changes, are too expensive to be available for large-scale early diagnostics, are invasive, or can be administered only by specialists. Current diagnostic practice delays the diagnostic time by several years, making treatment much less effective. Due to a rapid mental decline, patients are robbed of the chance to decide on their own personal, legal and financial matters.
We propose a novel approach for early dementia diagnosis by using electroencephalography (EEG). EEG measures the electrical activity of the brain and is regularly used in clinical practice to diagnose epilepsy. However, EEG has enormous diagnostic potential that goes beyond epilepsy, but existing clinical EEGs are too bulky and difficult to use.
We are therefore developing a mobile, easy-to-use EEG for early dementia diagnosis. Since EEG was invented 100 years ago, the device itself is not a novelty and it is not difficult to build. But it is very difficult to find a biomarker for dementia in the acquired brain signals – we have managed to do just that by developing and successfully testing EEG-based algorithm for dementia diagnostic. This algorithm calculates recorded brain signal data and returns a simple score that indicates the likelihood that a person is suffering from dementia. Physicians can use it to diagnose patients early and prescribe treatment sooner.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine neurology epilepsy
- medical and health sciences basic medicine neurology dementia
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
SCM 1001 Il Kalkara
Malta
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.