Practicality of promoting brain health and early dementia screening in elderly residents with friendly mobile App: Beijing plan

This article presents a brief introduction of Beijing plan, namely the Beijing’s Brain Health Examination (dementia risk screening) project initiated by Beijing municipal government in early 2019, which is a successful exploration and practicality of brain health examination for the community residences and dementia risk screening system construction. Slowing down the incidents of dementia and reducing eventually its prevalence in the population has been one of the main targets highlighted in Healthy China Initiative 2030 , by Chinese government. As a welfare to its elderly residents, Beijing municipal government initiated the brain health examination (dementia risk screening) project, aiming to provide brain health examination service for 96000 permanent residences over 65 years old at six districts in Beijing before the end of 2019 and gradually make the service available city-wide. This project is a first yet crucial step that governments, central or local, take the lead and concrete measure to organize and implement brain health examination for the aged on a large scale, and to make the nation’s strategy of healthy China a reality by 2030. Through the early detection and reduction of dementia prevalence, the project would make optimal allocation of medical resources possible and bring enormous social and economic benefit. For example, it will save an estimated cost of 23.36 billion yuan for healthcare in five years only in Beijing area. As an institute involved in the early conceptualization and initiation of this project, the Center for Beijing Aging Brain Rejuvenation Initiative (BABRI) and State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University have been working on AD risk longitudinal research (BABRI project) primarily community-cohort based and later with the added clinical-based cohort since 2008. Based on our ten-year basic research and technology advancement, we built a state-of-art mobile platform with innovative cognitive and mental tests as well as the well-known standard ones. It also includes dementia risk screening system and has been used for the Brain Health Examination (Dementia Risk Screening) project successfully. This platform endows the advantages of high screening efficiency, uses shorter time and is designed for its convenience for the elderly. In addition, it is also a platform for basic scientific research by providing comprehensive data managements, and curative effect assessment of cognitive rehabilitation training. And it’s a technological answer to problems faced by large-scale community-based dementia risk screening. In summary, the Beijing’s Brain Health Examination project not only lays the foundation for carrying out the citywide screening for the aged as a social welfare, but also plays a trend-leading role for the establishment of a government sponsored system for brain health in major provinces and cities of China.