Closely related to brain health research and innovation is the issue of operationalizing and measuring cognitive health
Leoben Research medical knowledge projects focus on developing diagnostic tools for an effective, timely and responsive assessment of paediatric cognitive functioning in Sub-Saharan clinical research and healthcare settings
Advancing cognitive health risk measurements for children can translate our collective understanding of the science of brain health promotion into clinical tools to:
- Assess a child’s risk for health outcomes on the basis of their current health status and exposure to risk and protective factors
- Be used for an early diagnosis of altered cognitive development as well as monitoring and evaluating responses to treatment
- Inform on child’s health and psychosocial care treatment planning
The development of accepted and validated cognitive health metrics and assessment tools is critical to understanding the impacts of determinants, interventions and returns on investment for brain health. Such knowledge would have huge clinical relevance and public health impact
Widely validated cognitive health metrics will allow for:
- Identifying effective interventions to improve cognitive health
- Translating implementation science on the scale-up of priority interventions into the formulation of investment “best-buys” for cognitive health
- A more robust understanding of the relationships between cognitive health and outcomes within other areas of brain-related health impairment and disability, and society at large by tracking the impacts of interventions aimed at optimizing cognitive health and the returns on these investments
- Tracking returns on investments and developing “best-buys” to inform on policy development, resource planning and utilisation