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ContactDementia Health Tech Horizon Scan
With dementia named as the leading cause of death in the UK for the second year in a row, finding more intelligent and accurate ways to diagnose the condition in the early stages is more crucial than ever. Early diagnosis offers significant benefits to patients, their carers, and the healthcare system as a whole. While there is no cure for dementia, there are a new generation of disease-modifying drugs on the horizon that could considerably slow down disease progression. The earlier dementia is diagnosed and addressed, the more time patients and their carers are afforded with a good quality of life. Early diagnosis and treatment could also alleviate some existing strain on the NHS as currently up to 25% of NHS beds at any one time are in use by people with dementia.
The Health Innovation Network south London conducted a Dementia Health Tech Horizon Scan report in Autumn 2024 as part of a wider collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the NIHR HealthTech Research Centres (HRCs).
The report provides a brief overview of the products and innovations currently available with the potential to diagnose dementia, or diseases causing dementia, in the early stages of the condition. It gives an extensive (but not exhaustive) overview of 43 companies that mainly focus on dementia diagnosis, and the involvement of digital technology.
From the 43 companies identified:
- 31% use imaging and cognitive assessment technology – these are the most frequent areas for innovations in this space
Among imaging technologies, the majority focused on MRI scan analysis (71%)
- Approximately 60% of all technologies indicated the use of AI
- 71% of these companies are at an early stage, not yet indicating CE/UKCA mark or ISO compliance
Three different clusters of terms with high co-occurrence were identified. These clusters identified some of the current needs and priorities in the field regarding these technologies, including:
Human factors
Training
Care quality and family carers
Biomarkers
Identifying novel biomarkers - from finding new proteins and other small molecules that can be detected in bodily fluids from patients (including blood, but also saliva sweat, and tears) even before cognitive impairment symptoms appear, to other physiological measurements (i.e. EEG). This also includes changes in patient behaviour that can be assessed using digital tools, like sleep patterns, speech and language, or eye movements.
Associations between diagnosis with other parameters
Some of the biomarkers for dementia are influenced by age or medication - for example, patients that are older and have hypertension might have higher risk of Alzheimer, even though hypertension is not a biomarker for dementia itself.
However, this represented the current needs and priorities of the field, instead of the aim of current businesses.
The field of early diagnosis for dementia holds a lot of potential, particularly with advancements in MRI screening technologies. MRIs can identify biomarkers strongly associated with dementia. By combining existing MRI screening technology with AI-driven analysis, there is the potential to make early diagnosis more accurate, and less reliant on invasive procedures. However, the road to widespread implementation is not without challenges. Some of the key considerations for the integration of these technologies requires addressing the cost of MRI screening, and ethical considerations of the use of AI models, for example. Collaboration between innovators, clinicians, and commissioners are the cornerstone for overcoming these challenges - effectively maximising the speed of progress in a field with much promise.
This project is funded through the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Health. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Publicly available sources were consulted, including the following external websites: Dimensions, ClinicalTrials.go, Crushbase, UK Research and Innovation, and Dealroom. The following organisations were also consulted: Integrated Care Systems, UCL Partners, National Institute for Health and Care research (NIHR), Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), Digital Health.London, and Health Innovation Network south London.
This horizon scan is limited to innovations known to the Health Innovation Network South London, and a wider search. The majority are still building evidence and those that are deployed have yet to receive NICE recommendations. Description of products have been taken from company publicly available documents and marketing materials. Claims have not been validated as part of the market review. The Health Innovation Network do not endorse any of the commercial products included within this document.
The innovations and companies included in horizon scan or roadshows are not preferred nor sole providers, and procurement or purchase of these would be conducted in accordance with the relevant procurement law obligations, using frameworks relevant to the requirements of the respective contract and/or tender.
This is not an exhaustive list. Given the dynamic nature of the market, and wide availability of products that can be applied to dementia diagnosis among other applications, there might be companies that are new, or recently looking to expand in dementia, that might not have been identified.