Michelle LaPlaca, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, and Dr. David Wright, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Emory School of Medicine and co-director of the Emory Emergency Medicine Research Center were honored last evening as "Heathcare Heroes" for the DETECT device developed by the researchers.

LaPlaca and Wright's DETECT device involves a brief and inexpensive test designed to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which often leads to Alzheimer's disease. LaPlaca and Wright hope the test becomes part of a patient's normal preventive care. If doctors can measure a decline in cognitive abilities over time, a patient could then be referred to a specialist to undergo additional testing.

For more information on their research, visit the Business Chronicle at the following link:
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/05/12/focus8.html