’Forward-thinking symposium’ highlights use of digital technologies in neurology

In this video from the Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association, Justin C. McArthur, MBBS, MPH, discussed the Presidential Symposium, Leveraging Digital Technologies in Neurology, that featured six presentations.

“Even before the [COVID-19] pandemic, we had selected the topic of the presidential symposium,” McArthur, president of the American Neurological Association and director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Neurology, told Healio Neurology.

The 2-hour session provided the panelists the chance to talk about “their own approach to bringing digital technologies to neurology,” McArthur said. The goal was not to focus on “the more pragmatic aspects” of telemedicine, he continued; rather, the goal was to highlight novel strategies for using digital technologies in neurology.

McArthur highlighted two presentations from the symposium. The first talk was given by Jang-ho Cha, MD, PhD, of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, who reviewed the development of novel outcome measures for clinical trials.

The second presentation McArthur discussed was given by Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco. Gazzaley discussed a tablet-based game he developed for children with ADHD.

“This was an incredibly forward-looking symposium,” McArthur said. “It really [told] the story of how we are going to be using digital technologies to track neurological performance both in clinical trials and in everyday neurological practice and ... to treat neurologic disorders.”