App that detects mental decline may be lifesaver amid the Asia dementia tsunami doctors are forecasting
As Asia braces for a rise in dementia cases, a start-up’s app, now available in Chinese, may prove a good option for families to monitor the health of ageing loved ones from afar. It detects the early onset of mental health problems
Dr Mylea Charvat, a Stanford University-trained neuropsychologist, regularly checks on her mother’s cognitive health through a mobile app.
The San Francisco-based entrepreneur is behind Savonix, a start-up that digitised various neurocognitive tests so screenings can be done easily, frequently, and inexpensively, using a smartphone.
Her mother lives in a rural farming community in the American state of Kansas and has taken the app’s Trail Making Test, which assesses factors such as attention and mental flexibility. “I have her do it every six months as she’s 80 and she’s caring for her elder sister who is dying, so that’s a lot of stress,” Charvat says.
At a conference in the United States in 2016, a Mexican-Japanese insurance executive based in Singapore approached the entrepreneur, having clearly studied Charvat through media reports. He asked: “Are you worried about your mother?”
“All the time,” she replied.
“There’s this woman in Shanghai [in a similar situation] as your mother. Do you believe the life of her mother in rural China is worth less than the life of your mother?” he asked.