Strengthening Brains with Technology.

Challenge
Expand the BrainHealth Project™, by turning a tedious, in-person-only +3hr clinical intake process into a seamless digital experience that would expand the project’s reach and engagement and continue to expand.

The Center for BrainHealth approached Dialexa as a key product and technology development partner to help them expand their research capacity and unlock their ability to scale. In addition to scalability, keeping existing participants engaged for the duration of the study remained paramount. The BrainHealth Project is a 10-year longitudinal study examining the potential to revolutionize global health by utilizing holistic, personalized measures in conjunction with SMART™ Brain Training.
OUTCOMES
An Award-Winning BrainHealth™ Digital Research Study Platform That Enables Personalized Experiences And Revolutionizes Virtual Brain Training From
Anywhere On Earth.

The new digital platform allowed the formerly in-person research process to grow and expand, even through COVID, well beyond simply the Dallas / Fort Worth region to anywhere on Earth. Working closely with Center for BrainHealth statisticians, we were able to utilize custom algorithms to perform the initial assessments and decrease time and effort needed to onboard new participants.

90% Workload Reduction

Digitalizing and automating workflow created tremendous efficiency and productivity gains.

1st Brainhealth Index

Developed the first algorithm to measure and quantify a person’s current level of brain health and performance, as well as track improvement over time.

WORK

A partnership codified in cognition.

The Center for BrainHealth approached Dialexa to create a scalable and engaging solution to manage a global research project consisting of more than 100,000 participants.

Using an interdisciplinary team of engineers, UX professionals, and machine learning experts, the team created a foundational data platform with a modern interface for The BrainHealth Project™ – making it entirely more functional in the face of today’s challenges.

Mapping out the brain.

The Dialexa team worked closely with statisticians from Center for BrainHealth to create machine-learning powered algorithms for the initial assessments and decreasing time and effort needed to onboard new participants. But that was just the beginning. The first quantifiable measurement of brain health – the Brain Health Index.

The platform evolved to become a patient-friendly portal – providing a personalized user journey, sending and receiving information, tracking progress and deploying various metrics that help track brain health and keep participants deeply engaged.

Since the main focus of the project is to explore the brain’s limitless potential, the cognitive neuroscience research being conducted will ultimately provide a better understanding of how to tap into the brain’s ability to adapt and improve across a lifetime.

With the data collected, the team developed and tested science-based brain training tactics and techniques including the world’s first-ever, holistic measure of the brain’s health and performance: The BrainHealth Index. Ground-breaking yes, but it’s all in a day’s work at Dialexa.

A mind-blowing result.

Our work on the BrainHealth Project was recognized in ways we never imagined; not only was it received with the highest praise from our client (our primary goal), but it was also selected as a finalist for Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design.

APPLYING THE DIALEXA APPROACH

Our partnership with the UTD BrainHealth™ Study provides the perfect examples of our approach in action, working to streamline every critical touchpoint along the way.
1

MVP / Release 1

Creating an online digital data and assessment research study platform to move the onboarding of new participants from paper to a browser/web experience expanded the study’s reach worldwide.

User Feedback
  • Users desired quicker results.
  • Users wanted more resources for understanding and improving their brain health.
  • Scheduling and managing coaching sessions was challenging.
2

BrainHealth Index™ & Online Training

Improving the BrainHealth Index™ based on learnings from the MVP. Richer training content and resources, an integrated scheduling service, data export tools, survey functionality, analytics improvements, and enhanced administrative functionality.

User Feedback
  • Better coaching functionality is needed.
  • Need to increase engagement between assessment cycles.
  • Manual assessment scoring a major limit to scale.
3

Machine Learning / BrainHealth Index™

Created a custom machine learning algorithm automating the majority of the scoring work, added virtual coaching, brain healthy habit tracking, and gamification hooks.

User Feedback
  • Group coaching needed to unlock additional scale.
  • Make the interface less clinical in order to improve engagement and appeal.
  • Find ways of leveraging other health data in combination with brain health assessment data.
  • A better mobile experience to increase reach and engagement.
4

Native Application & Improved Interface

Redesign of the interface, introducing enhanced gamification, richer ways of interacting with and understanding your BrainHealth Index™. Development of native applications for both iOS and Android to increase the reach of the project and unlock the ability to combine brain health data with other health data.

User Feedback
  • Expand data access for outside researchers.
  • Prepare for global scale.
  • Continuously improve and create new activities for more engagement.
5
Can't wait to see what's next.
PERSPECTIVE
Unlocking the power of the brain with technology is not a task for people that shy away from complexity. At Dialexa we thrive in complexity, even when it’s 86 billion neurons. We excel in it, we hunger for it and we help you win when you’re facing it.

It’s why we were the perfect partner for BrainHealth.

The lesson: The more monumental the task, the more massive the rewards can be - in this case, pushing closer to understanding the full potential of the human mind.

quote-mark The Dialexa product team, alongside the BrainHealth clinicians and development team, leveraged design psychology and communication theory to craft a motivating and rewarding product experience that is key to keeping engagement high and optimizing the results of the study. Combine that with the latest in machine learning and AI and you have something magical that drives true behavioral change. The impact of this program could be a game charger in solving some of the world’s most critical brain health issues. quote-mark

– Scott H., Dialexa CEO, Dialexa

quote-mark Our team has set an audacious goal of launching the next health revolution, focused on extending peak brain years. quote-mark

– Sandra Bond Chapman, PhD
Client

The Center for BrainHealth Project™

Tags
Public
Roles
  • Lead Hardware Engineer
  • Mechanical Engineer
  • Software Engineer Lead
  • User Research
  • Data Engineer
  • Quality Engineer
  • Engagement Lead
THINKING
  • Agile & Iterative Development
  • Field Research
  • Design Thinking Service
  • Blueprinting Journey Mapping
Connect

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