‘Cardiff ONline Cognitive Assessment (CONCA): An online tool for clinical monitoring of cognition in patients with psychosis’

Background:

People diagnosed with psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, can experience problems with their memory, attention and problem-solving skills. This can range from minor problems remembering things to more severe problems that affect the person's work, home and social life. Research has shown that these problems do not get better when other symptoms have improved. They appear before diagnosis and current treatments do not help. To detect these problems, we can use tasks (like games or puzzles) that test memory, attention and problem-solving. While no treatments for these problems are currently available to use in services, it is still helpful to measure them because they predict the people who are most likely to experience disability because of their illness. However, they are not used in clinic due to time and cost and because staff are not trained to use them.                                          

Aim:

I will test a research tool (the Cardiff ONline Cognitive Assessment, CONCA) to determine whether it can be used to test patients in clinic. CONCA has been used in mental health research for many years. It was designed with input from people with lived experience and it gives easy to read information about the user's performance. However, it has not been tested as a clinical tool. I will ask patients and healthcare workers questions about whether they find CONCA easy to use and useful.        

Design and methods used:

This project has three parts. In part 1, I will interview patients and healthcare workers about using CONCA. I will ask them for their opinions and ideas on how CONCA could be used in the clinic. In part 2, I will invite a large group of people with psychosis to complete CONCA. They will complete CONCA twice so that I can look at whether people's scores are consistent over time. In part 3, I will use our results from parts 1 and 2 to improve the CONCA tool. I will create a plan for the next larger phase of testing.                                                     
Public involvement:

I created CONCA by working with patients and health workers. They suggested it may be useful in the clinic. I will continue to work with these groups to test CONCA. We will work together to improve it and make plans for the next stage of testing. Patient representatives have reviewed this project and suggested edits.  

Dissemination:

I will share my results with scientists by speaking at conferences and writing in freely available journal publications. I will also share my results more widely, including with people with lived experience, carers, the NHS, government, charities, and the general public. I will do this through social media and blog posts, the use of graphics and videos and hosted events. Our patient representatives will be actively involved in disseminating the results.