In pictures: 12 ways the iPad Is changing healthcare

The iPad Helps Diagnose Alzheimer's Disease

Britain's Alzheimer's Society estimates that one-third of sufferers go undiagnosed. This is important because early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or dementia give physicians and patients more time to prepare for the future and reduces the likelihood that one will need costly institutional care. To complement the process, Cambridge Cognition has developed an iPad app to test for memory loss. Program managers piloting the app say it's more effective than paper memory tests, which tend to be easy, inaccurate and difficult to translate to other languages. The iPad app can also detect variations in gender, age and education levels and determine if memory problems are caused by depression or by episodic or short-term memory loss, both of which are common early signs of Alzheimer's.