White Paper: The SPARK Scan
The SPARK Scan was created to solve one major problem — that dementia underdiagnosis is all too common. It is estimated that between 40% and 60% of dementia cases go undiagnosed, driven in part by an overburdened health system, and in part by challenges in access.
Underdiagnosis creates a host of problems, ranging from poor health outcomes and missed opportunities to intervene, to increased costs and lagging patient satisfaction. Furthermore, the underdiagnosis problem has particularly severe ramifications for Medicare Advantage plans, because underdiganosis leads to missed RAF adjustments: since undiagnosed dementia patients cost the same or more as patients with diagnosed dementia, plans have to cover the same cost of care with less available resources.
In this paper we describe our flagship product, the SPARK Scan, a dementia screening tool based on EEG. The SPARK Scan aims to address the underdiagnosis problem by providing a simple, accurate, and accessible way for physicians and health systems to screen the members of their population for dementia and lower rates of underdiagnosis.