Utilising accessible and reproducible neurological assessments in clinical studies: Insights from use of the Neurological Impairment Scale in the multi-centre COVID-CNS study
Reproducible and standardised neurological assessment scales are important in quantifying research outcomes. These scales are often performed by non-neurologists and/or non-clinicians and must be robust, quantifiable, reproducible and comparable to a neurologist's assessment. COVID-CNS is a multi-centre study which utilised the Neurological Impairment Scale (NIS) as a core assessment tool in studying neurological outcomes following COVID-19 infection. We investigated the strengths and weaknesses of the NIS when used by non-neurology clinicians and non-clinicians, and compared performance to a structured neurological examination performed by a neurology clinician. Through our findings, we provide practical advice on how non-clinicians can be readily trained in conducting reproducible and standardised neurological assessments in a multi-centre study, as well as illustrating potential pitfalls of these tools.
Authors
- Timothy R. Nicholson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2350-2332)
- Yun Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7843-9126)
- Gerome D. Breen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2053-1792)
- Tom Solomon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7266-6547)
- Mark Ellul (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6115-8245)
- James B Lilleker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9230-4137)
- Katherine Dodd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0491-7030)
- Nicholas Davies (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4095-4549)
- Glynn W. Webb
- Michael S. Zandi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9612-9401)
- Benedict Michael (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8693-8926)
- Thomas Pollak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6171-0810)
- Daniel J. van Wamelen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0921-5158)
- Ali M. Alam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6014-3263)
- Laura Benjamin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9685-1664)
- Ava Easton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1739-2915)
- Rhys Huw Thomas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2062-8623)
- Nicholas William Wood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9500-3348)
- Ceryce Collie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0239-9401)
- Rajish Sanjit Kumar Shil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9100-6114)
- Arina Tamborska (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4661-8407)
- Thomas M. Jenkins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0342-7184)
- Craig J. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9078-9919)
- Orla Hilton
- Sashini Mariathasan
Institutions
- King's College London (GB)
- Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (GB)
- Charing Cross Hospital (GB)
- National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Newcastle University (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Clinical Medicine
- Published
- 2024-09-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinme.2024.100241
- Primary Topic
- Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00