By TPS • 7 July, 2019

Israeli hi-tech programmers have volunteered to join doctors and psychologists to develop an app that diagnoses Alzheimer’s disease at an early stage.

Doctors and psychologists from Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and from Harvard University have developed a program that helps assess the patient. During the course of the evaluation, the respondent is asked a series of questions about his life, family and friends, as well as general questions that could indicate his control of his surroundings.

The patient is also asked questions that indicate spatial orientation, for example, which two cities presented to him by the app are closer to him.

Based on the responses, and using an artificial intelligence algorithm, the application can give the doctor an assessment of whether the patient is in the initial stages of the illness and can consider the appropriate treatment.

The data is stored and can be compared with later evaluations when the patient is re-examined, monitoring whether there is deterioration.

The use of the application and the self-administered test saves the doctor valuable time and manual documentation.

Ariel Zeitlin, chief technology officer at Guardicore in Tel Aviv who is leading the volunteer development activities, stated that the cybersecurity company is “happy to contribute its experience in the realms of cybersecurity and information protection for this important social endeavor.”