We are pleased to introduce the first electronic version of the Neuropsychiatry Unit Cognitive assessment tool (NUCOG). The NUCOG pencil and paper test was developed in 2000 within the clinical context of a neuropsychiatry unit in a major teaching hospital. Since then the NUCOG has found its place across multiple clinical domains in psychiatry, neurology and general medicine. Feedback from users has highlighted the clinical and diagnostic importance of scoring cognitive performance across a number of domains. We have been fortunate to collaborate with clinicians who have translated and validated the NUCOG across a number of languages and offer it initially in Simplified Chinese and Spanish as well as English.

We hope that the electronic version of the NUCOG will provide clinicians with the same degree of clinical information within an electronic format. We welcome feedback that could improve the NUCOG

The NUCOG was originally developed as a tool that would balance a clinician’s valuable time with the need to measure cognition across a number of domains. In response to the demand for an electronic version of the NUCOG we have developed this electronic application and have deliberately opted to leave the content of the NUCOG unchanged compared to the original paper and pencil version.

As with the original NUCOG, the NUCOG application provides the rater with scores across the five domains of attention, memory, executive function, language and a domain named ‘visuoconstruction’. The latter domain could just as easily have been termed a ‘parietal domain’ as it includes a number of cognitive tests that rely on intact parietal lobe function.

As a result of the multidimensional scoring system, a pattern of cognitive change can be discerned and integrated within the clinical assessment. The NUCOG takes about 20 minutes to complete, though our initial beta testing of the e-version has suggested that this time is reduced by about 10%.