An olfactory screening product for preclinical neurodegenerative diseases

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s have a huge impact on patients, their close ones and society as a whole. The negative consequences of these diseases are ever increasing due to our ageing society and growing shortage of healthcare personnel. Worldwide research efforts have thus far been unable to find effective treatment options.

Brain deterioration in neurodegenerative diseases sets in 15 to 20 years before clinical symptoms become noticeable. This means that even if better treatment options become available, much irreversible damage has been inflicted before we know to administer the treatment.

Early deterioration of smelling ability has been shown to provide a good risk indicator for future disease development. This thesis dives into the sense of smell as a means of recognizing neurodegenerative diseases preclinically.

An olfactory evaluation tool, called Knowse, was developed. This concept product was designed to make the well-known ODOFIN Sniffin’ Sticks test suitable for the context of case-finding for neurodegenerative diseases. Knowse transforms the Sniffin’ Sticks into an automatic self-test that people may use at a brain health clinic or optician. The product provides people with a relative trendline of their smelling ability, from which conclusions can be drawn over time.

This thesis report features a deep-dive into the neurodegenerative diseases Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, their impact and their current procedures. Possible future test locations, ethics of diagnostics and the current olfactory test market are explored through interviews and literature research.

Several design methods, prototypes and design iterations are described as they lead towards the final concept product of this thesis, Knowse. Design focused much on the technical, usability and error-proofing aspects of the concept product.