NeuroX, a neurology-focused online consultation service, and its physician network ATP Partners announced it will participate in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) GUIDE Program to enhance care for dementia patients. 

NeuroX, American TelePhysician's brain health division, offers a virtual-care platform that connects individuals with neurologists, psychiatrists and sleep specialists to provide what the company touts as a "complete brain health ecosystem." 

The company works with employers, individuals and facilities, offering online screening and consultations, neurodiagnostics, AI-enabled remote patient monitoring and a speech-based cognitive-assessment test dubbed LANGaware.

CMS' GUIDE Program, which will officially launch July 1, aims to support individuals living with dementia and their caregivers by providing care coordination and care-management services, respite services, and caregiver education and support. Individuals will also have 24/7 access to a support line.

Additionally, the program will provide guidelines for a standard approach to care with the aim of keeping dementia patients living in their homes. 

Through the GUIDE Program, individuals suffering from dementia will have access to NeuroX and ATP's technology platform, including its diagnostics, treatment and home care services. 

"GUIDE is the latest innovative CMS value-based program focused on improving clinical quality while lowering health care expenditures for Medicare," ATP CFO David Spalding said in a statement. 

"As a GUIDE participant, ATP will deploy our scalable, award-winning brain health care management platform to support our proprietary specialist telemedicine network and in conjunction with community-based physician groups focused on senior populations with chronic conditions."

THE LARGER TREND

CMS announced the GUIDE model in July of last year in response to President Biden's executive order issued three months earlier to increase access to high-quality care and support caregivers. 

According to the CDC, approximately 5.8 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia, and by 2060 that number is expected to jump to 14 million people.

Other organizations focused on providing dementia care are Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai and Oita University, also in Japan, which built an AI model that uses data from wearable devices to predict Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia.

St. Louis-based Harmonic Health is another tech-enabled dementia-care platform, as is Fujifilm Corporation, which developed AI technology to predict whether patients with mild cognitive impairment will progress to Alzheimer's disease within two years.