Overview:

Presently, neurodegenerative and dementia diseases pose a significant health challenge, with one in three individuals born today anticipated to develop the disease. Approaching 2025, the UK is expected to have one million people living with a neurodegenerative disease, incurring an annual cost of £26 billion to the economy. Globally, 152 million cases are expected in 2050, having a multifaceted impact on health care, economy, and society.
Neurodegenerative diseases equally impact cognitive, affective, and physical capability where effects are gradual due to the slow progression of these diseases. Detecting incremental changes in cognitive abilities such as memory and thinking, affective responses including mood shifts and reactions to frustrating situations, or behavioural patterns such as eating habits, daily routines, and changes in profession, proves challenging within single-instance assessments. This further results in numerous symptoms going unnoticed and remain underexplored. Here, the application of machine learning, big data collation, and digital platforms offers improved and intelligent approaches to monitor slow-progressive symptoms.

In our workshop, the focus will centre around mapping requirements for the development of a gamified digital platform for non-clinical remote neurodegeneration tracking and recognition that will utilise a series of drawing tasks. We would like to extended our digital platform to further incorporate diverse data modalities including clinically prevalent biomarkers and underexplored socio-psychological markers. This one-day workshop will bring together interdisciplinary researchers, practitioners, and professionals to address challenges and limitations of current detection systems for neurodegenerative and dementia spectrum disorders, discussing effective screening tasks that can be adapted to a digital detection platform. Similarly, we will explore applicable machine learning approaches to classify the nature of neurodegeneration. Finally, discussions will address augmenting existing public data resources (e.g., UK biobank) and supporting ongoing public programs and studies for instance the NHS innovative collaboration for digital health.

Format of the workshop:

Morning session

We invite you to join a panel led discussion addressing current challenges and limitations of early detection systems for the recognition of neurodegenerative diseases. Following each 10-minute presentation, the audience will be invited to engage with the panel in an open Q & A. The focus of this session is to generate a map of needs for the development of a digital platform for non-clinical remote neurodegeneration tracking and recognition.

Afternoon session

You will engage in one of two practical activities where group tasks will be directed towards addressing the technical aspects of the proposed gamified digital platform, guided by the generated map of needs from the morning session. We particularly welcome data scientists, experts in machine learning and software developers to lead the focus of this task, guided by expert perspective from all workshop
participants. We intend to addresses practical challenges such as patients’ engagement in digital detection and sustainability of digital platforms. A ‘hot tables’ discussion will also be conducted for the backend and frontend design specifications for the digital platform. In one group, the discussion will follow through the digital thread layer of the system, considering data modalities, targeted screening tasks, data privacy, and storage. The other group will explore the sensing capability of digital interfaces, system architecture, a machine learning pipeline, and aesthetics specification of the platform.

Venue:

We heartily encourage people to join us in-person, however we are happy to facilitate online presentations and discussions.

On-site location: Lady Hale Moot Courtroom, University of Bristol

Date:

9am - 5pm, Monday 25th March 2024

Accessibility and Dietary Requirements:

Please indicate your requirements by completing the following registration form by the 16th of March 2024: https://forms.office.com/r/BrqnT0BuUp