Why Should Primary Care Clinicians Shift to AI-Powered Cognitive Assessment? Experts Explain

August 7, 2025

David J Libon, PhD , Rodney A Swenson, PhD, Grace Halsey

During a recent interview with Patient Care,© David J Libon, PhD, a professor at the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging at Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, discussed the advances in digital cognitive assessment that have translated traditional paper-and-pencil tests into highly sensitive AI-powered evaluations that are administered on familiar technology, eg, an iPad.

As the neurocognitive researchers explained, conventional assessments are time-intensive to administer and score and are limited to measuring only the accuracy of task performance—is the response right or wrong. Digital tools go further by capturing subtle, high-resolution data, such as millisecond-level response latencies, that are imperceptible to the human observer. These minute pauses and reaction times, even when responses are technically correct, can serve as early biomarkers of cognitive decline, including mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease.

In the short video above, Libon and Swenson speak to the Patient Care primary care audience and encourage front-line providers to investigate the technology.

"You will be detecting problems before essentially all you're doing is managing them, not trying to mitigate them. Digital cognitive assessment provides an opportunity for those folks on the front line to actually be able to do something that they haven't been able to do before for their patients," Swenson concludes.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for style and flow.

Patient Care: Would you encourage primary care clinicians to start using digital cognitive assessment tools in daily practice?

David Libon, PhD: Well, what I would say to our listeners is: embrace the technology. Try to learn what’s new, what’s out there, and what digital assessment of cognition is really about. I believe healthcare providers will deliver a higher quality experience—not only for their patients, but for themselves—by integrating digital cognitive assessments into their practice. All of the digital assessments that Dr. Swenson and I have been developing are reimbursable by insurance companies. So this isn’t something we’re asking healthcare providers to do free of charge—you will be reimbursed for your time. I would urge our listeners to seek out additional information and explore how this new technology can be integrated into their practice to provide a better and more optimal healthcare experience for patients.

Rodney Swenson, PhD: I would add that we do colonoscopies, we do mammograms, we check A1c levels—and the reason we do that is because if you don’t detect a problem, you can’t start treating or managing it properly. There really hasn’t been a good way for primary care physicians to do that for cognitive issues in a meaningful way. Digital cognitive assessments can provide that support. I think the outcomes for their patients will be more desirable because they’ll be detecting problems before it’s too late—before all you can do is manage decline instead of trying to mitigate it. This technology provides an opportunity for frontline providers to do something they haven’t been able to do before for their patients.

Rodney A Swenson, PhD is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks, ND.

David J Libon, PhD, is a Professor at the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, at Rowan University, in Glassboro, NJ.

For more from our conversation with Drs Libon and Swenson, see: