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54/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 54 out of 100. Getting a diagnosis

Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act added a new Medicare benefit, the Annual Wellness Visit (AWV), effective January 1, 2011. The AWV requires an assessment to detect cognitive impairment. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) elected not to recommend a specific assessment tool because there is no single, universally accepted screen that satisfies all needs in the detection of cognitive impairment. To provide primary care physicians with guidance on cognitive assessment during the AWV, and when referral or further testing is needed, the Alzheimer's Association convened a group of experts to develop recommendations. The resulting Alzheimer's Association Medicare Annual Wellness Visit Algorithm for Assessment of Cognition includes review of patient Health Risk Assessment (HRA) information, patient observation, unstructured queries during the AWV, and use of structured cognitive assessment tools for both patients and informants. Widespread implementation of this algorithm could be the first step in reducing the prevalence of missed or delayed dementia diagnosis, thus allowing for better healthcare management and more favorable outcomes for affected patients and their families and caregivers.

Key findings

The AWV requires an assessment to detect cognitive impairment.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) elected not to recommend a specific assessment tool because there is no single, universally accepted screen that satisfies all needs in the detection of cognitive impairment.
To provide primary care physicians with guidance on cognitive assessment during the AWV, and when referral or further testing is needed, the Alzheimer's Association convened a group of experts to develop recommendations.
The resulting Alzheimer's Association Medicare Annual Wellness Visit Algorithm for Assessment of Cognition includes review of patient Health Risk Assessment (HRA) information, patient observation, unstructured queries during the AWV, and use of structured cognitive assessment tools for both patients and informants.
Widespread implementation of this algorithm could be the first step in reducing the prevalence of missed or delayed dementia diagnosis, thus allowing for better healthcare management and more favorable outcomes for affected patients and their families and caregivers.

Why it matters

These Alzheimer's Association recommendations provide primary care physicians with an algorithm for detecting cognitive impairment during the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit. Widespread use of the algorithm could be a first step in reducing missed or delayed dementia diagnosis, allowing better healthcare management, but it is not a treatment, cure, or prevention.

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Study details

Evidence strengthLow

How this study scored 54/100

Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on senior author's track record, so that was left out: it earned 52 of the 96 points we could judge it on, which is 54 out of 100.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	9 / 10	Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association)
Journal's citation record	2 / 4	Alzheimer s & Dementia: journal h-index 228 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	0 / 12	No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Strength of evidence	1 / 5	Rated “low” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	1 / 5	2013 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	0 / 4	Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	0 / 3	Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Randomised / blinded	0 / 2	No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Times cited	6 / 7	Cited 579 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	4 / 5	38.6 citations a year over 15 year(s) since 2013
Impact for its field and year	5 / 6	Cited 21.8× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	4 / 6	Cited by 33 other studies in this library
Still being cited	3 / 4	Cited 106 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	— / 4	Senior author's record not available — left out of this score
Institution's track record	3 / 3	University of Washington: institution h-index 3,540 (OpenAlex)
Multi-centre collaboration	2 / 3	OpenAlex lists 9 institution(s) in 1 country
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 23265826)
Free to read	0 / 2	Behind a paywall — scores zero
Points	52 / 96	Scored on 19 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 52 of the 96 points we could judge it on is 54 out of 100.
Total	54 / 100	—

What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →

Read the original

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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.

APA 7th

Cordell, C. B., Borson, S., Boustani, M., Chodosh, J., Reuben, D., Verghese, J., et al. (2013). Alzheimer's Association recommendations for operationalizing the detection of cognitive impairment during the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit in a primary care setting. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2012.09.011

Vancouver

Cordell CB, Borson S, Boustani M, Chodosh J, Reuben D, Verghese J, et al. Alzheimer's Association recommendations for operationalizing the detection of cognitive impairment during the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit in a primary care setting. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. 2013. doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2012.09.011. PMID: 23265826.

BibTeX

@article{cordell2013-23265826,
  author  = {Cordell, C. B. and Borson, S. and Boustani, M. and Chodosh, J. and Reuben, D. and Verghese, J. and Thies, W. and Fried, L. B. and others},
  title   = {{Alzheimer's Association recommendations for operationalizing the detection of cognitive impairment during the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit in a primary care setting}},
  journal = {Alzheimer's \& dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association},
  year    = {2013},
  doi     = {10.1016/j.jalz.2012.09.011},
  pmid    = {23265826},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2012.09.011}
}

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