BRAINWAVEGUARD
Bringing Brain Health Assessment to Primary Care
Reinventing Alzheimer’s Detection: A Real-World Pilot in Primary Care
This project focused on the development of an AI-driven Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) decision support system designed to provide clinicians with an automated, individualized report on a patient’s brain health status based on advanced EEG biomarkers. The solution aims to support the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline through a low-cost, non-invasive, and scalable approach, reducing reliance on expensive neuroimaging or invasive procedures.
Developed by Starlab in collaboration with Badalona Serveis Assistencials (BSA), the project included a pilot study at a primary care center (CAP) in Badalona, where the system was tested with patients presenting memory complaints and potential risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
A strong focus of the project was co-creation with healthcare professionals. Through multiple focus groups with nurses, physicians, and key opinion leaders, including Fundació ACE, Fundació Pasqual Maragall, and Institut Guttmann, we explored the main challenges in achieving timely diagnosis in primary care. Using Design Thinking, Empathy Mapping, and iterative prototyping methodologies, these insights were translated into the design and refinement of a minimum viable product (MVP) tailored to real clinical needs.
The solution went through two iterative testing cycles, during which healthcare professionals actively evaluated the platform and provided feedback that enabled continuous improvement of the user interface, reporting outputs, and clinical workflow integration. A final pilot with patients allowed us to assess both the clinical usability and operational feasibility of the system.
This project represents an important step toward transforming brain health assessment from a largely manual and time-consuming process into a cloud-based, AI-enabled decision support service with strong potential for deployment across private clinics, research centers, rehabilitation services, and future primary care settings.
Projectes d'innovació oberta i disruptiva (convocatòria 2023)
Resolució EMT/2569/2023 (bases reguladores)
