Apple and Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Biogen are investigating the role Apple Watch and iPhone could play in monitoring cognitive performance.

The virtual research study is investigating how Apple Watch and iPhone could help monitor cognitive performance and screen for decline in cognitive health including mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

The multi-year, observational research study will be launched later in 2021 and will enrol participants including young and aging adults with a range of cognitive performance. Driven by the technology in Apple Watch and iPhone and Biogen’s knowledge of neuroscience, the study’s primary objectives are to develop digital biomarkers to monitor cognitive performance over time and identify early signs of MCI.

“Cognitive decline can be an early symptom of neurodegenerative diseases and dementia,” said Michel Vounatsos, CEO at Biogen. “The successful development of digital biomarkers in brain health would help address the significant need to accelerate patient diagnoses and empower physicians and individuals to take timely action. For healthcare systems, such advancements in cognitive biomarkers from large-scale studies could contribute significantly to prevention and better population-based health outcomes, and lower costs to health systems. Bringing together the best of neuroscience with the best of technology creates a wonderful prospect for patients and public health.”

For aging adults, cognitive health is becoming increasingly recognised as an important component of overall health. However, significant delays exist in identifying declines in cognitive health including MCI, which impacts approximately 15 to 20 per cent of adults over the age of 65. The onset of symptoms is often subtle, ranging from being easily distracted to memory loss, and can take months to years before cognitive decline comes to the attention of health care providers.

“Working in collaboration with Biogen, we hope this study can help the medical community better understand a person’s cognitive performance by simply having them engage with their Apple Watch and iPhone,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “We’re looking forward to learning about the impact our technology can have in delivering better health outcomes through improved detection of declining cognitive health.”

The virtual study allows adult users across the aging lifespan to join. The study has been designed with customer privacy, control and transparency in mind as well as data security. Participants, who can stop taking part in the study at any time, will complete a detailed consent form listing the collected data types and how each may be used and shared. Data will be stored in an encrypted manner and in systems with strong security controls designed to protect the data.

“This is terrific news for all of us who are interested in our brain health,” said George Vradenburg, chairman of Us Against Alzheimer’s, a patient-led non-profit pushing to prevent dementia through attention to brain health. “Just as we today use new digital and mobile tools to help us monitor and improve our cardiovascular health, this new study will help us learn how to use those same tools to monitor and improve our brain health. We have learned repeatedly that detecting disease at its earliest stage is our best bet to treat it effectively. To that end, this exciting study could enable us to learn how to get early warning signs of cognitive decline which may be addressed through lifestyle and therapeutic changes designed to slow or stop the progression of brain disease.”

Nora Super, executive director of the Milken Institute Alliance to Improve Dementia Care, added: “Strategies that optimise brain health and improve cognitive function are the key to reducing the risk of dementia and this study has the potential to discover transformative ways to monitor and assess brain health. We are always eager to see technological innovation, and we are particularly interested in the user convenience of data collected through the use of everyday devices like Apple Watch and iPhone. This type of innovation may enhance our understanding of the aging brain and therefore may ultimately help us understand how to maintain and improve brain health throughout adulthood.”

Biogen discovers, develops and delivers worldwide therapies for people living with serious neurological and neurodegenerative diseases as well as related therapeutic adjacencies. It was founded in 1978 by Charles Weissmann, Heinz Schaller, Kenneth Murray and Nobel Prize winners Walter Gilbert and Phillip Sharp.

Today, Biogen has a portfolio of medicines to treat multiple sclerosis, has introduced the first approved treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, commercialises biosimilars of biologics, and is focused on research programmes in multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, neuromuscular disorders, movement disorders, ophthalmology, neuropsychiatry, immunology, acute neurology, and neuropathic pain.