Dementia is poised to be one of the biggest health crises of the next century: 47.5 million people have dementia worldwide, and that number is expected to nearly triple by 2050, according to the World Health Organization. While dementia is declining in the US, the number of older people is growing and annual cost for dementia treatment in the US is higher than heart disease and cancer.
Given dementia is an umbrella term that can encompass many different diseases, few doctors have the neuroscience and geriatric training to recognize the nuance between dementia cases, which can lead to a "one size fits all" diagnosis and care plan.
Dr. Anitha Rao has seen this problem firsthand: She's just one of 1,000 physicians in the world with specialized training in dementia and geriatric neurology. Rao is now launching a startup in hopes of improving dementia care through technology.
Rao is the cofounder of Neurocern, a platform that uses proprietary algorithms to analyze symptoms in order to provide diagnostic guidance for doctors and a personalized care plan for patients. Rao hopes this solution will be particularly helpful to families without access to specialists and caregiving advice.
"We could develop a [method] that was faster, and provide the type of clinical expertise that a clinical neurologist would ask, to the fingertips of laymen," said Rao.
On the Neurocern platform, knowledgeable family or caregivers answer questions on symptoms and concerns. Answers are imported to their system, and the platform uses a proprietary algorithm and series of predictive and prescriptive analytics to create a unique brain profile of the patient, a personalized care plan, and access to a care library that offers suggestions on dealing with behaviors and situations.
They're currently running a pilot with a nurse practitioner working at a community hospital, another pilot with an insurance company, and have a third pilot with an academic medical center in Chicago in the works. She also noted there's a new Medicare code specifically for doctors who do early tests for Alzheimers and provide care counseling for those with cognitive impairment.
They previously participated in a pitch competition and showcase with the AARP, and have raised a $200,000 friends and family round. Rao said they eventually want to raise a Series A.
Rao, along with her cofounder social worker Marguerite Manteau-Rao (note: their shared last name is a coincidence) met while Rao was doing a fellowship at the University of California San Francisco's Memory and Aging Center. They sat down over coffee to discuss the challenges in current dementia care, when Marguerite, who has an MBA from University of Chicago Booth and a masters in social work from Loyola University Chicago, suggested there was a way to create dementia care plans through tech.
Rao was skeptical ("I had my clinician hat on" she said) but they decided to test out their concept by having caregivers separate symptoms written on notecards into yes or no piles. They were able to use the notecard system to accurately predict the diagnosis, even in difficult cases.
The duo spent over a year working through the logic, integrating clinical guidelines and evidenced based research to get their diagnosis and care suggestions right. They brought on CTO Dan Kogan, who has years of experience in healthcare tech and startups, to build the product.
If people want to do an intervention in dementia, you need to start with women
The startup is based out of Matter, though Marguerite is located in Palo Alto and Kogan is based in New York City. While Rao moved to Chicago to be closer to family, she said the city's health resources, including major insurance companies and healthcare systems, have offered easier access to clients.
At the same time, she said being in the Midwest is like working in the "trenches" of dementia, given the region has above average rates of dementia, as well as some of the highest rates of "dual" dementia cases, meaning patients that are on both Medicare and Medicaid. Rao continues to clinically practice work once per month in underserved communities particularly to understand the experience of low-income patients.
Rao is a member of the current cohort of WiSTEM, and will present Neurocern at the WiSTEM showcase on February 7. And her startup intersects with women in more way than one: She also noted that women are more likely to be diagnosed with dementia as well as be a "dual" case, and disproportionately make up dementia caregivers. She's currently working on abstracts and articles covering women and dementia with a researcher at Rush University Medical Center.
“If people want to do an intervention in dementia, you need to start with women," she said.
Note: An earlier version of the article incorrectly stated the stage of Neurocern's enterprise product (it is complete, but not yet public), mischaracterized the time Rao is working in a clinical setting (it is one week per month, not once per month, and misspelled 'Marguerite.' The story has been updated to reflect the corrections.
