RALEIGH, N.C., USA, September 21, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Technology startup uMETHOD Health is partnering with regional and national diagnostic laboratories and hundreds of physicians to identify and address the multiple factors that contribute to cognitive issues in seniors. The Raleigh, NC-based company produces leading-edge medical artificial intelligence (AI) and services to target complex diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). On the 29th annual World Alzheimer’s Day, uMETHOD states there are multiple contributors involved in the progression of AD and they insist none of them should be overlooked.

Complex diseases like AD proceed from many contributing medical, genetic, and environmental factors that vary widely from person to person. As a result, AD is rarely diagnosed until late in its progression. RestoreU, an advanced personalized AD care planning platform, uses uMETHOD’s AI software and large data sets to identify an individual patient’s risk of developing AD and reduce the complexity of mitigation. This type of multi-domain intervention has been shown, in scientifically-rigorous clinical trials, to be the most promising and cost-effective approach to treating such a complicated disease.

High-quality, comprehensive data leads to high-quality patient outcomes. Partnerships, such as the recently announced agreement among uMETHOD Health, Getlabs, Inc. (which provides at-home laboratory sample collection), and Sonora Quest Laboratories (also based in Arizona), enable the uMETHOD algorithms to obtain extensive data that the software can use to improve its disease models. Clinicians and disease experts across the country, such as Dr. Marwan Sabbagh, lead neurologist at Barrow Neurological Institute, provide another source of pertinent data in the form of patient health histories.

Something as simple as a tumble in the backyard is an important focus for interventions to arrest the progression of AD. Although AD itself appears to be a major cause of falls in senior adults, the reverse can also be true: after a fall, the patient often regresses physically and mentally due to head trauma, pain, and a lack of exercise and activity.

Each year, over 3 million people are treated in US emergency departments for injuries resulting from falls. The care that these incidents require is costly, but the consequences for the accident victim can be far more severe than the financial toll. Head injuries and brain trauma are accelerants for AD symptom progression. And treatments for the pain and injuries associated with falls have also been shown to exacerbate cognitive impairment.

Falls will never be completely preventable, but AI can predict who has increased vulnerability. Based on the drugs that a patient is taking and the statistical probability that a drug will increase the patient’s likelihood of falling, the uMETHOD AI models calculate a “fall risk score” for each medication and a total score for the individual. This score forms one component of the comprehensive care plan that uMETHOD produces for the patient’s physician—a plan that might recommend changes to medications to reduce the risk of falls.

The ability to calculate a patient’s fall risk score is an example of the changes that AI is bringing to the practice of medicine. One of the founders of uMETHOD Health, John Q. Walker, Ph.D, was feeling energized on World Alzheimer’s Day, declaring that he feels more optimistic than he has felt since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Recent progress in software development and research, beneficial partnerships, and encouraging clinical data indicate that uMETHOD Health is making strides toward their goal of preventing or slowing the development of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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About uMETHOD Health
uMETHOD Health offers sophisticated precision-medicine methodologies that empower physicians to better manage the outcomes and costs of these complex chronic diseases through customized care. For more information, visit http://www.umethod.com.

Eric Quimby
uMETHOD
+1 919-819-2899
equimby@umethod.com

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