Comprehensive and Easy-to-Read Physician Report
After a patient takes the Screen test battery, the data are automatically sent via the Internet to Screen Inc.’s central repository, where they go through a proprietary analysis. Final scoring is completed by a qualified healthcare professional, who creates the report and e-mails it as a PDF attachment to the clinician, usually within an hour of test completion.
For some patients, Screen’s Report might show that everything looks okay. For others, the doctor might decide that the low test scores should be followed up with a patient meeting, additional testing, or specialty referrals. Sometimes a specific contributing factor such as depression or alcohol use needs to be addressed before testing is repeated.
In all of these situations, Screen’s Physician Reports are constructed so the doctor can show their patient and their families the graphs and information, and patients with their families can better understand the next steps.
A closer look, section by section
In order to present the test data in relevant categories (normal, caution, impairment), the patient’s test data are first standardized. Z-scores record the patient’s “distance from average” comparing the results to those of hundreds of other people who took the CANS-MCI. That distance (the standard deviations) captures the likelihood that the patient’s ability deviates from the average (for people with a similar educational level).
FINDINGS
The level of functioning within each cognitive domain is described, as well as the global functioning level. Patterns of functioning are assessed, within the context of reported risk and causation dimensions, by live professionals (MA or PhD, with geriatric testing experience).
OTHER FACTORS
Reported contextual dimensions which influence cognitive performance are considered in the physician report. Attention to these can often clarify the likelihood of progressive decline.
.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Specific times and methods for follow-up testing are presented, along with recommendations for specialty follow-up procedures.
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Each dimension of testing and contextual information is discussed and patterns with implications detected by live testing professionals are described.
.
COGNITIVE SCORES
Standardized z-scores in the green bands represent a high likelihood that the patient’s memory health is normal (for their education). Z-scores that fall in the yellow bands (caution) suggest a lower likelihood that the patient’s test scores are normal. Those that lie in the red bands show a high probability of cognitive impairment. (Symbol Fluency and Executive Function graphs not shown.)
.
PROBABILITY OF MCI
A complex predictive algorithm estimates the probability of Mild Cognitive Impairment. Education-specific norms and sensitivity/specificity (using baseline and 1-year independent full neuropsychological evaluations as the criterion standards).
.
PREDICTION
The prediction of the probability that a full neuropsychological evaluation will result in an MCI classification of the person tested is a unique product of CANS-MCI testing and is given with a description of its implications.
.
PATIENT INFO
Partial and basic patient information helps the clinic re-identify who the report belongs to and lends additional context. The Patient Code is arbitrary: created by the clinic for its own use. It is entered into the CANS-MCI at the start of each test session and is held by Screen in order to be reprinted here.
.
LONGITUDINAL DETAILS
Exact standard deviation information specific to education level is presented in the important context of the level of depression. Depression is not only an important possible cause of cognitive decline; it is treatable.
You can open an example of our 2-page report in PDF format. This report is on a woman with reported depression who appeared cognitively unimpaired at her first testing. We recommended that she return in 6 months, to track changes in depression. As her memory had declined, we continued to recommend testing in 6 months and observed gradual continued memory decline despite less depression. The report shows that her symbol fluency, usually the last domain to give out with impending Alzheimer’s, has remained relatively unimpaired and stable.