The CST-Assistant v2.0 is now ready for release in Denmark and on track for release in the UK end of Q3 2024
Copenhagen, Denmark, 14 June 2024 – Brain+ A/S (Nasdaq First North: BRAINP)
- The development of all technical features and of high-quality, curated and adaptable CST content for the CST-Assistant v2.0 has been completed
- The new version of the CST-Assistant is a considerable upgrade of the product to meet key pain points and needs of CST therapists to support and scale the delivery of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) to people with dementia
- The CST-Assistant v2.0 will be released in Denmark later in June and made available for partners in the COPI implementation project to gain relevant user information
- The completion of the CST-Assistant v2.0 is a key step in the preparation of UK market entry of the product as a certified medical software in Q3 2023
Brain+ announces that it has completed the development of a significantly upgraded version 2.0 of the CST-Assistant and that the product will be released in the Danish market according to plan later in June 2024. The CST-Assistant is a software-based solution for the standardized, quality ensured and scalable delivery of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST), which is the leading evidence-based non-drug therapy for dementia. The new version will be made available for the company’s existing Danish customers, be the basis for potential new municipal contracts and be used in the ongoing CO-PI granted project for the implementation and scaling of the CST-Assistant to support the delivery of CST to people with dementia in Denmark.
This marks an important step also towards planned commercial release of the product as a medical device in the United Kingdom (UK) in Q3 2024. Brain+ focuses commercially on the UK market, which represents the currently largest and most attractive market for the CST-Assistant product. CST in its original analogue form as a group-based therapy for people with dementia was invented in the UK where the therapy has the highest penetration and ~6.000 trained CST therapists. CST is also recommended for national implementation by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
The CST-Assistant will be introduced in the UK as a medical device with medical claims, giving it an advantage in the UK health system including enabling better access to the established reimbursement pathways for medical software solutions. In the Danish market the product will initially be introduced as a regular health product to save the costs of EU medical device certification, as it is less important in Denmark, where there are currently no reimbursement options.
Product function and impact: The CST-Assistant v2.0 is the culmination of 1 year of development work, based on comprehensive feedback gathered from CST therapist users and CST experts, including a Danish usability study conducted by VIA University College, one of the two accredited CST education institutions in Denmark. The CST-Assistant addresses the primary pain points and needs of therapists delivering CST to people with dementia by providing the world’s largest library of expert-validated CST content suited for the wide range of cognitive functioning that is found in people from early mild dementia to late moderate dementia.
The therapists can use the product’s adaptive functions to instantly tailor a full 7-week, 14 session CST program based on the particular characteristics a CST group participants, including age and physical capabilities – and in full accordance with the CST manual to ensure full clinical compliance. The result is not only that a therapist saves 50% of preparation time on average, but also that the therapy can be delivered in the highest quality in accordance with the CST principles which is crucial for the evidenced clinical effects of the therapy.
The technological platform, security requirements, data collection and user functionalities of the CST-Assistant v2.0 is the same across different country versions, but the CST activity content is culturally adapted to each country through a rigorously validated process with leading national CST experts. In the UK version of the product, the content has been co-developed and verified, with the co-author of the original CST manual and leader of UK CST education, Dr. Catrina Craig.
Value proposition: The CST-Assistant v2.0 enables health systems, managing the care and treatment of people with dementia, to rapidly and cost-effectively scale their delivery of CST. In the UK CST is the only non-drug therapy for people with dementia, which is recommended for national implementation by NICE. Consulting psychiatrists who are responsible for diagnosing dementia in the UK, are required to offer CST to those diagnosed. In the UK, the benefits of CST is widely recognized, however there is lack of sufficient resources to deliver and scale the therapy as recommended. This can be greatly alleviated by use of the CST-Assistant v2.0, which allows more people to be served with fewer therapists, while ensuring a standardized, high quality delivery of the therapy.
Next steps: Towards the UK launch the main milestones for the next 3-4 months are
- establish a UK entity to support the company’s UK activities
- complete the ongoing usability study, conducted in partnership with AgeUK
- have the CST-Assistant certified as a medical-device according to UK regulatory requirements, including data protection.
Brain+ is on track to meet all three milestones.
Contact Information
CEO and Co-founder: Kim Baden-Kristensen, + 45 31 39 33 17 (SMS), kim@brain-plus.com
Brain+ mission: Become the preferred provider of certified health tech solutions for better dementia management, servicing one million people affected by dementia by 2030.
