Emerging Technologies 

3.0 CE Credits - Member $60 | Nonmember $90

Target Audience: Neuropsychologists and trainees
Instructional Level: Intermediate

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The Emerging Technologies Collection includes the below webinars: 

 

Assessing and Promoting Functional Health

 

Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, Ph.D.
H. L Eastlick Professor
Department of Psychology
Washington State University
 





Tania Giovannetti, Ph.D., ABPP-CN
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
Temple University





Cognitive impairment can notably impact an individual’s ability to complete everyday activities (e.g., cooking, managing medications) and live independently. Neuropsychologists are routinely asked to answer questions about everyday functional capacities. However, current neuropsychological testing methods are not well-suited to answer such questions. This workshop is designed to help attendees understand the current state of research surrounding functional assessment and apply best practices to the assessment of functional health. In this talk, we will review the strengths and limitations of common clinic-based methods for assessing the functional health of clients, including self-report measures of activities of daily living and performance-based tests. We will discuss issues related to ecological validity and the use of virtual reality, simulated environments and more naturalistic, direct observation methods. Newer methodologies for capturing functional health in the real-world environment, including the use of ambient and wearable sensors and ecological momentary assessment, will also be discussed. In addition, we will describe several examples of novel clinic-based measures being created to better measure functional health. Emphasis will be placed on understanding intra-person factors (e.g., compensatory strategy use) and contextual factors (e.g., environment, personality) that may impact accurate assessment of everyday functional status. We will end with a discussion of several novel technology-based interventions being used to promote functional health. Recommendations for future research and for clinical use of methods for the assessment of functional health will also be provided.

After the session, participants will be able to:
1. List common methods used in clinical practice to assess functional health.
2. Describe newer methods that are being used to assess functional health in the clinic and real-world environments.
3. Describe strengths and limitations associated with functional health assessment methods.
3. Describe several technology-based interventions that are being used to promote functional health.

Digital Neuropsychology in Research and Clinical Practice

 

Naomi Chaytor, Ph.D., ABPP
Board Certified Clinical Neuropsychologist
Associate Professor (with tenure)
Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine

Laura Germine, PhD 
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Co-director, Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital






Despite clear scientific and public health relevance, methods for comprehensive digital neuropsychological assessment outside the traditional lab or clinical setting are limited.  This lack of assessment flexibility became abundantly clear during the covid19 pandemic, when clinicians were unable to conduct face-to-face testing. Reliance on face-to-face assessment methods also limits our ability to fully understand how cognitive performance varies across time and context. This is particularly important, as data increasingly indicate that cognitive variation is an important early marker of brain dysfunction. This workshop will provide an overview of research and clinical applications of remote, self-administered mobile cognitive assessment in real-world settings.  The presenters will provide examples from their recent experience 1) developing and deploying a remote digital neuropsychological assessment platform to clinicians during the covid19 pandemic, and 2) using mobile cognitive assessment in research focused on understanding the real-world effects of transient physiological and psychological states on cognitive variation.  In the first part of the workshop, the development and validation of neuroscience-based self-administered mobile cognitive tests will be described, including both challenges and opportunities. Next, survey data collected from approximately 1000 clinicians (as of 4/2020) using the TestMyBrain Digital Neuropsychology Toolkit during the covid19 pandemic will be presented. Lastly, an overview of study design considerations involved in ecological momentary assessment of cognition, symptom reporting and passive sensor data will be presented from an ongoing project investigating the cognitive effects of short-term fluctuations in blood glucose and psychological state variables (fatigue, stress, affect) in adults with type 1 diabetes.

After the session, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the key steps in mobile test validation.
2. Understand the advantages and limitations of remote self-administered neurocognitive assessment in clinical practice.
3. Explore research applications of integrated remote assessment of physiological states, self-report data and cognitive performance.

Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe is a H. L. Eastlick Professor in the Department of Psychology at Washington State University. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist, with specialty training in Neuropsychology. Her research has been funded by more than $15 million in grants from multiple NIH institutes, NSF, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Department of Defense, and by the Life Sciences Discovery Fund and Attorney General’s Office of Washington State. She has authored or co-authored more than 140 peer-reviewed publications investigating cognitive change, functional abilities, methods of compensation and preventative health interventions with healthy aging, neurodegenerative and traumatic brain injury populations. Dr. Schmitter-Edgecombe and her colleagues have been opening the door to new avenues of health and science research in the emerging field of Gerontechnology by training a new breed of students in complementary disciplines (e.g., computer science, engineering, psychology and health care). The goal of this collaborative work is to extend the everyday functional independence of the aging population by developing smart environments and technologies that promote proactive health care and real-time intervention.

Tania Giovannetti, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, with a joint appointment in the Clinical Psychology and Cognition and Neuroscience Programs at Temple University. Dr. Giovannetti earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology/Neuropsychology from Drexel University and completed her predoctoral internship in Clinical Neuropsychology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York. She trained as a NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurologic Rehabilitation through the University of Pennsylvania and Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute. She is a licensed clinical psychologist with board-certification in clinical neuropsychology and the principal investigator of the Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory. Her research focuses on understanding everyday cognition in a range of populations and has been supported by the Alzheimer's Association, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, National Science Foundation, Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health.