Detecting Dementia: Emerging Innovations and Their Implications for American Adults and Their Health Care

Under-detection and under-diagnosis of dementia results in a major gap in care for Medicare beneficiaries and exacerbates the long-term burden of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and related neurological disorders on patients, caregivers, and the Medicare program. Emerging tests, tools, and protocols are now increasing the ability to screen and assess patients for dementia and related disorders and to perform assessments in primary care and other non-specialty settings. These innovations will be integral to the scale-up of dementia prevention, care, and treatment.

Fully leveraging the potential of these innovations will require action in three primary areas:

1) Improving Medicare's dementia and brain health assessment benefits to encourage broader uptake of cognitive assessments.

2) Elevating the priority of research focused on biomarker development and the application of innovative tests, tools, and protocols among research funders.

3) Addressing gaps in diagnostic and billing codes to facilitate the adoption of new tests and tools.

Prioritizing these areas could promote the demonstration and validation of innovative dementia screening and brain health assessment tests, tools, and protocols, and support high-value utilization of these innovations. This would enable a collective advancement in quality and accessible dementia care and promote better outcomes for affected individuals.