Scientific Background of the CANS-MCI

The CANS-MCI was developed to solve a problem: there were no tools available that could accurately and economically detect the cognitive changes most predictive of further abnormal decline in adults and the elderly. The most common type of decline in need of early detection was toward Alzheimer’s disease.

The CANS-MCI was designed to measure all of the cognitive domains known to be most predictive of Alzheimer’s disease (AD): immediate and delayed memory; attentional speed and flexibility; executive mental control; clock hand placement fluency; language fluency.

Although the accuracy of measurement receives the bulk of attention in decisions about the value of various tests, accuracy overlaps with concerns about cost and other aspects of “usability” for medical staff and patients.  The CANS-MCI was designed to meet the cost challenges of training medical office staff and paying for their time, while also providing the most pleasant experience possible to patients and designing the clearest presentation of results to doctors.

Once those challenges had been addressed it became clear that three additional obstacles needed attention:

• the need to provide results in the context of complications such as depression or alcohol abuse.
• the need to overcome test reliability calamities caused by unskilled or inconsistent test administration.
• the need to adjust the testing process when impairments make testing too difficult.

The CANS-MCI became commercially available when all of these problems had been solved. Details are provided in this document: Scientific Background of the CANS-MCI. (The document will open as a PDF in a new browser tab.)