CAG Brain and Technology (BAT)

The CAG Brain and Technology (BAT CAG) aims to improve diagnostics, monitoring and treatment of patients suffering from neurological disorders using digital technologies close to the patient (eDevices), BIG DATA and artificial intelligence (AI).

The BAT CAG aims to strengthen research across medical specialties and the social and technical sciences. It will identify biomarkers in patients, collect and analyse data and develop data infrastructures. Furthermore, the CAG will improve digital monitoring of symptoms and ensure ethically justifiable implementation of portable, transportable or implanted eDevices in clinical practice and patients’ everyday lives. To ensure sustainable implementation of eDevices, the CAG will emphasise user involvement and co-creation together with patients suffering from neurological disorders – both in terms of product design, diagnostics and treatment.

The knowledge produced in the CAG will be translated into treatment and educational standards, improving the digital competences of health professionals and developing and communicating guidelines for using eDevices in clinical practice and patients’ everyday lives.

Neurological disorders are responsible for around 12 per cent of the Danish healthcare expenditure and represent a fifth of the total healthcare burden. The number of patients suffering from neurological disorders is increasing alongside the ageing population and increase in patients with lifestyle disorders and multiple diseases. Most patients suffering from neurological disorders experience cognitive difficulties even in the early stages of the disease. E.g., patients may not notice symptoms of epileptic seizures, which affects their chances of reporting such symptoms to health professionals and hence receiving the right treatment. Early disease detection and preventive medicine can improve patients’ quality of life by e.g. enabling them to return to work and be socially active.

Existing data from clinical observations of neurological patients’ disease development are limited, because most of this monitoring takes place in clinical environments that are very different from and only represent a small part of patients’ everyday lives. This lack of data limits clinicians and researchers when it comes to disease prognosis. The BAT CAG seeks to predict disease development by generating knowledge about the various functions of the body using eDevices implemented in patients’ everyday lives. This will give the researchers valid, real-time patient data which may be analysed using advanced data analysis methods.

Even though eDevices are gaining ground in various forms of treatment, there are limits to their applicability as clinical documentation and standards are still missing for a lot of the devices. By creating a standard within evidence-based practice for brain activity monitoring, the CAG will support researchers in collecting and analysing data from eDevices in order to create valid results and gain new insights.

The BAT CAG takes brain and technology research to the next level – from proof-of-concept to knowledge-based testing. The CAG presents a cross-disciplinary research collaboration between engineers, clinicians, basic research, public health and the social sciences, between clinical practice, research and patient and across neurological areas such as rehabilitation, epilepsy and sensory disabilities.

The BAT CAG aims to address the challenges caused by most widespread neurological disorders. Furthermore, research dissemination and guidelines produced by the CAG will constitute a vital contribution to the health sector’s future application of and learning from eDevices in connection with neurological disorders.