Boston-based Akili Interactive Labs partnered with Pfizer to conduct a study of Akili’s iOS-based game, Project Evo, in the hopes of using the game to detect indications of Alzheimer’s in healthy individuals.

The month-long study of 100 participants includes a mix of some who have risk markers of potentially developing Alzheimer’s and some who do not. All participants will take the game home and play it daily while researchers test whether the algorithms within the game can distinguish the group with risk markers.

“It is a large unmet need in Alzheimer’s to be able to identify individuals who are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s before major symptoms occur,” Akili’s VP of Research and Development Eddie Martucci told MobiHealthNews. “So currently, there is no very good simple cognitive means to do that. And so what we’re doing in the study is looking to validate our game play with healthy individuals can actually distinguish those healthy individuals that have a high risk for potentially developing Alzheimer’s.”

See on mobihealthnews.com