The dissertation of Aniek van Gils is entitled “Digital tools to support dementia diagnosis: Bridging the gap from innovation to real-world application.” She defends her thesis on Friday, September 27th, at 11.45 AM. In a changing dementia landscape, there is a need for innovative and sustainable solutions to keep dementia diagnosis and treatment accessible and scalable. Aniek’s thesis highlights the challenging reality of implementing digital innovations in memory clinics. Despite clinicians’ positive attitudes towards innovative tools, they often remain unused. By integrating views of the end-users (physicians, patients, and care partners), Aniek examined what truly matters in the consultation room and offers recommendations to bridge the gap between innovation and implementation. Her work is, among other projects, part of the Innovative Health Initiative funded PROMINENT project.
The dissertation of Agnetha Fruijtier is entitled ‘What patients in memory clinics want to know, and how we (ideally) inform them’. Agnetha defends her thesis on Tuesday October 1st at 11:45 o’clock. Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) experience cognitive impairment, but do not have dementia. New diagnostic tests such as amyloid PET scans or lumbar punctures, can help predict the risk of developing dementia in this patient group. At the same time, this increases the amount of information and number of choices to make during the diagnostic process for patients and their care partners. Agnetha’s work focuses on improving information provision and communication during the diagnostic trajectory in memory clinics, with a special focus on communicating the results of amyloid PET scans and the increased risk of developing dementia to MCI patients. Agnetha’s work is part of the ABOARD project. The defense of both theses takes place in the aula of the Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 11.05 in Amsterdam. You can also follow the ceremonies by live stream, accessible via the YouTube channel VU Beadle’s Office (https://www.youtube.com/c/VUBeadlesOffice).
