Leveraging Functional Medicine Technology to Build a Comprehensive County-Level Cognitive Health Service System
As the pace of population aging continues to accelerate, cognitive impairment among the elderly has become a major public health issue in China, severely impacting the quality of health and family well-being among the elderly, while also posing new challenges to the county-level healthcare system. Addressing the gaps in county-level health services for the elderly, closely aligning with national policies on the prevention and treatment of dementia, and leveraging cutting-edge functional medicine technology to establish a standardized, intelligent, and full-cycle cognitive health service platform-thereby creating county-level cognitive health centers and building a new integrated service model encompassing "prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and care"-is a key measure to bridge the gaps in county-level cognitive health services for the elderly, strengthen the grassroots defense for elderly health, and contribute to the "Healthy China" initiative.
Addressing Critical Social Issues and Overcoming Challenges in County-Level Cognitive Health Services
Authoritative statistics from 2024 show that the prevalence of cognitive impairment among China's elderly is severe, and the pressure on cognitive health management continues to rise. Among the nation's population aged 60 and older, there are approximately 15.07 million people with dementia and as many as 38.77 million with mild cognitive impairment; the total number of people with various types of cognitive impairment has exceeded 50 million, representing a massive patient population with extensive coverage. Compared to this vast patient population, China's efforts in early screening and intervention for cognitive impairment have significant shortcomings, with an overall early screening rate of only 10.06 percent. The vast majority of patients are not detected early through routine physical examinations or specialized cognitive screenings. By the time most patients are diagnosed, their condition has already progressed to the moderate or late stages, causing them to completely miss the optimal window for intervention to restore cognitive function. This ultimately leads to irreversible disease progression, which not only exacerbates the physical and mental burden on patients but also significantly increases the pressure on family caregivers and societal healthcare costs.
When focusing on primary healthcare settings in county-level areas, the shortcomings in cognitive health services become even more pronounced. For a long time, medical institutions in these counties have faced issues such as an incomplete specialized cognitive health service system, outdated screening equipment, limited intervention methods, a shortage of specialized personnel, and fragmented service processes. Most primary care facilities are only capable of conducting basic consultations and diagnosing patients with severe conditions, but lack the capacity for systematic early universal screening, precise stratified interventions, and long-term care management. Consequently, they are unable to meet the routine cognitive health needs of the elderly in their jurisdictions, leading to particularly acute issues of "late detection, delayed intervention, and poor prognosis" for cognitive impairment in these areas. There is an urgent need to bridge the "last mile" of primary-level cognitive health services through technological empowerment and systemic restructuring.
Aligning with Policy Directions and Charting the Course for Cognitive Health Development
The state attaches great importance to the prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment in the elderly and has successively introduced a number of specialized policies, providing clear policy guidance and strong policy support for the construction of county-level cognitive health centers. The National Health Commission's Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Dementia (2023–2025) explicitly states that routine cognitive function screening and early intervention for older adults should be conducted nationwide. It clearly requires regions with the necessary conditions to routinely provide annual cognitive health screening services to residents aged 65 and older, implement tiered and categorized targeted interventions for identified high-risk populations, and comprehensively advance the early detection, early warning, and early intervention of cognitive impairment.
Building on this foundation, the National Health Commission and 14 other departments jointly issued the *National Action Plan for Addressing Dementia in Older Adults (2024–2030)*, which further refines long-term development goals. The plan specifies that by 2030, the country will have established a comprehensive, integrated prevention and control system for dementia in older adults-covering the entire population and spanning the entire disease course-that encompasses screening, diagnosis, treatment, and care. while vigorously promoting the implementation of digital and intelligent technologies for cognitive training to enhance the quality and efficiency of primary-level cognitive health services. The implementation of this series of national policies fully demonstrates the country's firm resolve to advance the standardized, routine, and digital prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment in older adults. It also provides fundamental guidance and a roadmap for counties to leverage functional medicine technologies, establish end-to-end cognitive health service systems, and build standardized county-level cognitive health centers.
Technology Empowers County-Level Areas to Build a Full-Spectrum Cognitive Health Service System
Grounded in the realities of county-level medical services and precisely addressing the cognitive health needs of the elderly population within its jurisdiction, the center focuses on the service philosophy of intelligence, precision, and non-invasiveness. With the three cutting-edge technologies of "brain-computer interface, neuromodulation, and artificial intelligence" as its core support, and equipped with a series of specialized smart medical devices, the center has established a standardized service process for tiered screening, precise intervention, long-term care, thoroughly breaking through the limitations of traditional cognitive health services and establishing a full-chain, closed-loop cognitive health service system covering "prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and care."
In the screening and early warning phase, the center utilizes the ADDS cognitive impairment screening device to conduct comprehensive, accessible cognitive health screenings for residents aged 60 and older within its jurisdiction. This device integrates internationally recognized neuropsychological scales with dynamic EEG monitoring technology, using artificial intelligence algorithms to accurately extract brainwave parameters. It requires no complex operations and is non-invasive and non-traumatic. Through a simple, user-friendly interface featuring human-machine interaction and voice guidance, is tailored to the physical characteristics of the elderly population. It enables rapid, comprehensive assessment of cognitive function and accurately identifies individuals with normal cognition, those at high risk for cognitive impairment, those with mild cognitive impairment, and potential Alzheimer's disease patients. This effectively addresses the issues of cumbersome traditional screening processes, low accuracy, and low coverage rates, significantly increasing the coverage of early screening for cognitive impairment among the elderly in the county and enabling the early detection, classification, and documentation of cognitive risks.
In the early intervention phase, the center uses the ADTS memory impairment training device to provide personalized early rehabilitation interventions for individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment through screening. Utilizing brain-computer interface technology and incorporating artificial intelligence and big data analysis, the device provides engaging and systematic intelligent training to enhance memory, attention, and cognitive abilities. It continuously stimulates neural function, slows the progression of cognitive decline, repairs early-stage cognitive damage, and maximizes the reversal of mild cognitive impairment. This helps older adults maintain normal cognitive function and the ability to care for themselves, ensuring they fully capitalize on the golden window of opportunity for cognitive impairment intervention.
In the intensive care phase, for individuals with moderate to severe cognitive impairment and patients with Alzheimer's disease, the center can utilize the ADMS gamma-wave neurostimulation system to implement a new model of non-pharmacological intervention or combined pharmacological and non-pharmacological intervention. Based on cutting-edge neurostimulation technology, this device delivers precise, non-invasive gamma-wave stimulation to the cerebral cortex, thereby regulating the secretion of neurotransmitters, improving cerebral blood flow, and repairing damaged neural pathways. Compared to traditional monotherapy, ADMS intervention offers the advantages of being non-invasive and safe, having minimal side effects, being widely adaptable, and delivering stable therapeutic outcomes. It alleviates symptoms such as cognitive decline, memory loss, and emotional disturbances in patients with moderate to severe cognitive impairment, slows the progression of the disease, enhances patients' quality of life, and fills the service gap for non-pharmacological interventions for moderate to severe cognitive impairment in rural counties.
Deepening Engagement in Rural County Practice, Exploring New Pathways for Cognitive Health Services
Leveraging three core technologies and specialized smart devices, the Cognitive Health Center continuously optimizes service processes, refines its service system, and innovates service models to establish a model for cognitive health services tailored to the county-level context.
At the "prevention" level, we will routinely conduct public awareness campaigns on cognitive health for the elderly, provide information on associated risks, and offer health education to disseminate knowledge about preventing cognitive impairment, raise awareness of self-health management among the elderly, and reduce the risk of cognitive impairment at its source; At the "screening" level, we will establish a routine annual screening mechanism to achieve full coverage of cognitive health screenings for the elderly population in the jurisdiction and maintain dynamic risk profiles; at the "diagnosis" level, we will rely on data from smart devices, combined with professional medical assessments, to achieve precise classification and diagnosis of cognitive impairment; At the "Treatment" level, a tiered diagnosis and treatment model will be established, featuring intelligent training interventions for mild cases and combined neurostimulation interventions for moderate-to-severe cases; at the "Care" level, an integrated care mechanism will be established, encompassing long-term follow-up, dynamic monitoring, rehabilitation guidance, and family caregiver training.
At the same time, the center leverages an AI-powered digital platform to build a county-level database on cognitive health among the elderly, integrating screening, intervention, and rehabilitation data to enable dynamic risk monitoring, real-time disease progression tracking, and precise service iteration. This drives the transformation of county-level cognitive health services from "reactive treatment" to "proactive prevention, precise intervention, and comprehensive care," thereby comprehensively enhancing the standardization, intelligence, and professionalism of cognitive health services for the elderly at the county level.
In Conclusion
Against the backdrop of an aging population, safeguarding the cognitive health of the elderly is a vital component of people's well-being and a key challenge for the high-quality development of grassroots healthcare services. By leveraging cutting-edge functional medicine technologies to establish county-level cognitive health centers, we can effectively address prominent issues such as low screening rates, limited intervention methods, and a fragmented service system. This approach will ensure the precise implementation of national policies on the prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment in the elderly, safeguard the brain health of older adults in the jurisdiction, and make a solid contribution to the high-quality development of county-level healthcare and the proactive response to population aging.