Business
Dementia diagnosis tool launch and InHealth update
Dementia diagnosis tool launch and InHealth update.
About this update from Ixico Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 2220V IXICO plc 11 December 2013 \n \n\nIXICO announces launch of a decision-support tool for diagnosing dementia and widened collaboration with InHealth\n \n· Assessa™ helps healthcare professionals make fast and accurate diagnosis of dementia\n· InHealth and IXICO to provide access to Assessa™ selectively in the UK and Eire\n· IXICO piloting the use of Assessa™ in a community setting in a collaboration with partners\n \n11 December 2013 IXICO plc (Ticker: IXI) (\"IXICO\" or the \"Company\"), the brain health company, announces the launch of its first CE marked medical device - to be marketed as Assessa™ - a digital healthcare platform to support the diagnosis of dementia. IXICO and InHealth Limited ('InHealth'), a major supplier of diagnostic and healthcare services to the NHS and private health providers, have today signed heads of terms to explore opportunities to provide Assessa™ and complementary services within the UK and Eire.\n \nIXICO's Assessa™ is designed to improve the quality of the information available to healthcare professionals diagnosing dementia thereby enabling patients to receive the right treatment and support they need sooner. Structural brain imaging (such as MRI scans) is regularly used in the diagnosis of dementia and is recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK. Assessa™ provides clinically actionable information from brain scans by making precise measurements of the brain and comparing it to a reference database of normal elderly people and dementia patients of the same age.\n \nThe product launch and widened collaboration coincide with the gathering of the world's health ministers in London for the G8 Dementia Summit. Fewer than half of the 800,000 people living with dementia in the UK are estimated to have a firm diagnosis, yet receiving a timely diagnosis has been shown to extend independent life by up to 18 months. This should make it possible for patients and families to access the care and support they need and plan for the future. The Prime Minister's Dementia Challenge, launched in March 2012, aims to raise the diagnostic rate to two thirds of sufferers being diagnosed by 2015. Traditionally, diagnosi...