CORTEX: Scaling neurotechnology in communities
July 29, 2025
Beyond the Lab: Scaling Wearables for Real-World Impact through Partnerships and Implementation
Presented at the 2025 Alzheimer's Association International Conference, the world's largest forum for the dementia research community.
The Challenge: Despite advances in wearable technologies and digital health tools, there is a gap between development and real-world adoption, especially for technologies that could transform dementia care and support aging individuals.
The Solution: The Ontario Brain Institute's CORTEX (Community-led Real-world neuroTech EXperience) program places prioritizes lived experience and community at the center of neurotechnology testing and implementation.
How CORTEX Works:
- Partners directly with community organizations, patient groups, and technology companies
- Co-designs solutions with people who have lived experience
- Tests technologies in real-world settings where they'll actually be used
The Results So Far:
- 10 community partnerships engaging 1,430+ individuals,
- Successful pilots including a seizure-tracking wearable, a concussion recovery app, and retinal scans for Alzheimer's detection, AND
- the Canadian Dementia Registry, launched with Alzheimer Society of Ontario
The Key Innovation: The Canadian Dementia Registry, our flagship CORTEX initiative, demonstrates the program's community-first approach. At three Alzheimer Society of Ontario sites, individuals with concerns about their cognitive health can receive comprehensive assessments and cognitive tests from onsite professionals. This data, along with demographic information, is then uploaded to OBI's Brain-CODE neuroinformatics platform for storage and analysis, creating a secure, province-wide system that tracks the dementia journey, improves access to new treatments, and connects families to the right care, at the right time.
The Impact: CORTEX is proving that when you start with community needs and lived experience, new pathways to can be created to help people access the support they need.