History

Cogtest was founded to provide computerized cognitive assessment solutions of the highest quality for use in clinical research trials. Cogtest was created to develop highly reliable and valid assessments of cognitive functions while overcoming the inherent limitations of traditional paper and pencil testing, namely human error, time, and cost.

The Cogtest system and its library of tests were developed together by Dr. Robert Bilder, University of California (UCLA), and Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, the Institute of Psychiatry, London (IoP), from 1992-2001 as a response to the need in research for more clinically meaningful tests. Cogtest's touch screen technology provided the reaction time measurements that could not be acquired through paper and pencil test. The unique systems developed for measurement, data capture, and checks and balances to control human error, which are now the Cogtest system, illustrate the innumerable benefits of computerized cognitive testing. This is supported by data from numerous studies.

Bilder and Sharma collaborated with neurocognitive test authors, including Dr. Ruben Gur, University of Pennsylvania, and DOS-based program developers, such as Dr. Barbara Cornblatt, New York University, who developed the CPT-IP.

Cogtest continues to develop and validate new computerized versions of the most widely used neurocognitive tests. The most recent are the BACS (Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia), in partnership with Dr. Richard Keefe, and the CGI-CogS (Clinical Global Impression of Cognition in Schizophrenia), in partnership with Dr. Bilder.

The pharmaceutical industry increasingly requires specialized tests to evaluate the beneficial and potentially adverse affects of new agents on cognitive functions in Phase I to Phase III clinical trials. A variety of instruments are needed to parallel the diversity of trials which vary in their degree of focus on cognition and may include a broad spectrum of subjects and clinical conditions. Cogtest is committed to providing a fully diversified portfolio of testing solutions for subjects at all ability levels. This enables a sensitive study of cognition in healthy young individuals and, at the same time, in impaired elderly people who may already have a significant neuropsychiatric compromise.

Cogtest further emphasizes a broad coverage of specific domains, acknowledging that new treatments may manifest efficacy on cognitive and affective functions beyond those, such as simple reaction time, that were the focus of older computer test batteries.