Digital Healthcare Platform for Early Dementia Diagnosis

Most of the 700,000 people in the UK with dementia have not received a formal diagnosis, leaving them without access to treatments that could help. The current NHS diagnostic process is slow—often taking more than 12 months—and frequently of low quality. This project builds a digital healthcare platform that combines computer-based tests of memory and thinking with automated analysis of MRI brain scans, tools already validated in research settings. The goal is to deliver the diagnostic expertise currently available only in highly specialist centres to any doctor treating patients, cutting the time to diagnosis to three months. If successful, the platform could transform dementia care by making early, accurate diagnosis routine rather than exceptional. That shift would allow patients to access treatments sooner, slow disease progression, and reduce the burden on NHS memory clinics. The team will build and test an initial prototype, demonstrate its value, then develop a refined version suitable for national rollout.