Cog-First : Feasibility study of an innovative cognitive screening tool for brain injured patients
1|Camille Heslot|Brain and Spine Institute (ICM)|Frontlab|France|
2|Alexis Schnitzler|GH St Louis Lariboisière F. Widal,|PMR Department|France|
3|Emmanuel Mandonnet|Brain and Spine Institute (ICM)|Frontlab|France|
4|Franck Tarpin-Bernard|Humans Matter|Recherche et Innovation|France|
Context: Acquired brain injuries can result in cognitive disorders that are often difficult to detect in clinical practice, leading to long-term negative outcomes for patients. Cog-First was developed as a tablet-based neuro-cognitive evaluation tool to screen for executive functions, memory and attention disorders in the acute phase after a brain injury. The evaluation is performed independently and takes about 20 minutes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of Cog-First.
Methods: Eighteen brain injured patients were recruited in Lariboisière neurosurgery department, to a prospective single-arm feasibility study. Following Cog-First evaluation, participants completed a satisfaction questionnaire using a 1-5 Likert scale. Questions were related to satisfaction, tediousness and comprehensibility.
Results : The results showed a high satisfaction rate with 72% of patients reporting that they were “very satisfied” by the evaluation. Regarding the tediousness of Cog-First, 89% of participants reported that the evaluation was “not tedious” or “strongly not tedious”. Finally, 94% of participants reported that the instructions were “very clear”. The evaluation also had a high acceptability rate with a relatively low rate of drop-out request (11%).
Conclusion : Cog-First appears to be a promising tool for screening neurocognitive sequelae in acute-phase brain-injured patients. It could play a crucial role in early patient referral to specialized facilities, thereby improving continuity of care and preventing the persistence of undiagnosed cognitive sequelae, thus promoting sustainable health. However, further larger-scale studies are needed to confirm these initial findings and validate the clinical utility of this assessment battery in preventing chronic cognitive disorders.