NeuroTec Sitem-Insel Bern: Closing the Last Mile in Neurology

Neurology is focused on a model where patients receive their care through repeated visits to clinics and doctor’s offices. Diagnostic tests often require expensive and specialized equipment that are only available in clinics. However, this current model has significant drawbacks. First, diagnostic t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kaspar A. Schindler, Tobias Nef, Maxime O. Baud, Athina Tzovara, Gürkan Yilmaz, Gerd Tinkhauser, Stephan M. Gerber, Oriella Gnarra, Jan D. Warncke, Narayan Schütz, Samuel E. J. Knobel, Markus H. Schmidt, Paul Krack, Flavio Fröhlich, Raphael Sznitman, Simon Rothen, Claudio L. A. Bassetti
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
Series:Clinical and Translational Neuroscience
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2514-183X/5/2/13
Description
Summary:Neurology is focused on a model where patients receive their care through repeated visits to clinics and doctor’s offices. Diagnostic tests often require expensive and specialized equipment that are only available in clinics. However, this current model has significant drawbacks. First, diagnostic tests, such as daytime EEG and sleep studies, occur under artificial conditions in the clinic, which may mask or wrongly emphasize clinically important features. Second, early detection and high-quality management of chronic neurological disorders require repeat measurements to accurately capture the dynamics of the disease process, which is impractical to execute in the clinic for economical and logistical reasons. Third, clinic visits remain inaccessible to many patients due to geographical and economical circumstances. Fourth, global disruptions to daily life, such as the one caused by COVID-19, can seriously harm patients if access to in-person clinical visits for diagnostic and treatment purposes is throttled. Thus, translating diagnostic and treatment procedures to patients’ homes will convey multiple substantial benefits and has the potential to substantially improve clinical outcomes while reducing cost. NeuroTec was founded to accelerate the re-imagining of neurology and to promote the convergence of technological, scientific, medical and societal processes. The goal is to identify and validate new digital biomarkers that can close the last mile in neurology by enabling the translation of personalized diagnostics and therapeutic interventions from the clinic to the patient’s home.
ISSN:2514-183X