Rhoda Au, PhD, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, discusses the promise of digital biomarkers to drive progress in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) treatment and management. Several digital biomarkers are currently in use that mimic well-established biomarkers and provide largely the same type of information. For example, digitized cognition tests can improve convenience over pen and paper versions, but generate the same data. However, digital biomarkers should not simply be seen as an online extension of traditional biomarkers. Prof. Au emphasizes the need to define a new class of prognostic and diagnostic digital biomarkers that are driven by data science and artificial intelligence and go beyond currently defined biomarkers. These have the potential to provide dynamic, multidimensional, temporally varying information. Defining a new class of digital biomarkers will require the development of new approval pathways and next generation gold standards that go beyond current validation methods. This interview took place at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2022 in San Diego, CA.
