Alzheimers: a mini hack

‘Alzhack’

@ Py-Data 4th August, 2015

Frank Kelly Data Scientist [email protected]

Maia Smith Bioinformatics Trainee [email protected]

Dave Coulthard Data Scientist [email protected]

in 2014, it was estimated that more than 44m people worldwide were suffering from dementia. By 2050 that

number is expected to triple.

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21607761-tests-alzheimers-are-improving-treatment-still-some-way-recherche-du

Ft.com

We are using data with the aim of performing

early diagnosis of

Alzheimer’s disease

HOW ?

Data

emails written by one woman

affected with Alzheimer’sto a single recipient,

frombefore disease onset

to the end of her email career.

5:30 PM 6 PM6:30 PM

Data: Example

“You must be THE most DEEEVINE granddaughter in the WHOLE WORLD!!! Thank you !!Thank you !!Thank YOU!!!!”

“THANK YOU!!!!!! !THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!! FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART ETC. ETC.ETC. YOU ARE A REAL SWEETHEART!!! XXXXXXX”

“to the clock fairy!!!!............. Thank you!!! thank you!!!! thank you!!!!!from the bottom of my heart and everyone elses'bottom, TOOO!!!!!!”

Method - metrics

We extracted: age at time of sending,

time of email, time between emailsnumber of responses in email thread,

readability metrics, sentiment analysis, location of recipient,

repetition

Analysis

Noisy data!time series analysis changepoint detection (ramp)

to detect a decline in lucidity

Results

Results

a series of recipes

forgot she had

already replied

“...I responded to your email during

the night and wasn't thinking all that

clearly and on rereading, just wanted

to submit an addenda…”

Recipient’s Location:

Next steps

An email plugin !We need more people

more emails (and other) data Alzheimer’s-specific metrics

Domain specific knowledge...get in touch...

Thank you!

...contact one of us if you want to helpdevelopment / data sci / domain-specific

or just have an idea!

Frank Kelly Data Scientist [email protected] / @norhustla

Maia Smith Bioinformatics Trainee [email protected]

Dave Coulthard Data Scientist [email protected]