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Digital technologies as biomarkers, clinical outcomes assessment, and recruitment tools in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials
Gold M, Amatniek J, Carrillo MC, Cedarbaum JM, Hendrix JA, Miller BB, Robillard JM, Rice JJ et al.. Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.), 2018-05-24
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Digital technology is transforming the development of drugs for Alzheimer's disease and was the topic of the Alzheimer's Association's Research Roundtable on its May 23-24, 2017 meeting. Research indicates that wearable devices and unobtrusive passive sensors that enable the collection of frequent or continuous, objective, and multidimensional data during daily activities may capture subtle changes in cognition and functional capacity long before the onset of dementia. The potential to exploit these technologies to improve clinical trials as both recruitment and retention tools as well as for potential end points was discussed. The implications for the collection and use of large amounts of data, lessons learned from other related disease areas, ethical concerns raised by these new technologies, and regulatory issues were also covered in the meeting. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of these new technologies for future use were discussed.
Key findings
- Research indicates that wearable devices and unobtrusive passive sensors that enable the collection of frequent or continuous, objective, and multidimensional data during daily activities may capture subtle changes in cognition and functional capacity long before the onset of dementia.
Why it matters
This meeting report discusses how wearable devices and passive sensors may capture subtle changes in cognition and functional capacity before dementia onset and could serve as recruitment, retention, and endpoint tools in clinical trials. It reports no treatment, cure, or prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 51/100
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.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.)) |
| Journal's citation record | 1 / 4 | Alzheimer s & Dementia Translational Research & Clinical Interventions: journal h-index 84 (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 | 2 / 5 | 2018 — within 10 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 | 5 / 7 | Cited 144 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 3 / 5 | 14.4 citations a year over 10 year(s) since 2018 |
| Impact for its field and year | 4 / 6 | Cited 10.1× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 2 / 6 | Cited by 5 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 2 / 4 | Cited 40 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 3 / 4 | Last-listed author Sara J. Czaja: h-index 73 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 2 / 3 | University of California, San Francisco: institution h-index 1,915 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 3 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 16 institution(s) in 4 countries |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 29955666) |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Total | 51 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
- DOI: 10.1016/j.trci.2018.04.003
- PubMed: 29955666
- Original source →
- Free full text: Alzheimer s & Dementia Translational Research & Clinical Interventions →
Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).
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
Gold, M., Amatniek, J., Carrillo, M. C., Cedarbaum, J. M., Hendrix, J. A., Miller, B. B., et al. (2018). Digital technologies as biomarkers, clinical outcomes assessment, and recruitment tools in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials. Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trci.2018.04.003
Vancouver
Gold M, Amatniek J, Carrillo MC, Cedarbaum JM, Hendrix JA, Miller BB, et al. Digital technologies as biomarkers, clinical outcomes assessment, and recruitment tools in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials. Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.). 2018. doi:10.1016/j.trci.2018.04.003. PMID: 29955666.
BibTeX
@article{gold2018-29955666,
author = {Gold, M. and Amatniek, J. and Carrillo, M. C. and Cedarbaum, J. M. and Hendrix, J. A. and Miller, B. B. and Robillard, J. M. and Rice, J. J. and others},
title = {{Digital technologies as biomarkers, clinical outcomes assessment, and recruitment tools in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials}},
journal = {Alzheimer's \& dementia (New York, N. Y.)},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1016/j.trci.2018.04.003},
pmid = {29955666},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trci.2018.04.003}
}
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