--- title: "Remote Cognitive Screening in Parkinson Disease: Validating the ORCA-PD Tool" description: Explore how virtual oncology services impact emergency department visits and uncover disparities in access among cancer patients in Australia. image: https://blog.jmir.org/hubfs/StoryTap%20Blog%20-%20Avigail%20Lithwick%20Algon.png --- [![JMIR Publications logo](https://blog.jmir.org/hs-fs/hubfs/JMIR-Publications_logo_2020_original.png?width=550&height=109&name=JMIR-Publications_logo_2020_original.png "JMIR Publications logo")](http://www.jmirpublications.com) Open main menu Close main menu [Research News](https://blog.jmir.org/tag/research-news) # Remote Cognitive Screening in Parkinson Disease: Validating the ORCA-PD Tool ![Liana Ramos, Marketing Associate](https://blog.jmir.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Liana%20Ramos.jpeg?width=45&name=Liana%20Ramos.jpeg) [Liana Ramos, Marketing Associate](https://blog.jmir.org/author/liana-ramos) Published Date: 5 August 2026 9:30 a.m. [Share this blog post on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=I+found+this+interesting+blog+post&url=https://blog.jmir.org/remote-cognitive-screening-in-parkinson-disease-validating-the-orca-pd-tool) [Share this blog post on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://blog.jmir.org/remote-cognitive-screening-in-parkinson-disease-validating-the-orca-pd-tool) [Share this blog post on LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.jmir.org/remote-cognitive-screening-in-parkinson-disease-validating-the-orca-pd-tool) ![Remote Cognitive Screening in Parkinson Disease: Validating the ORCA-PD Tool](https://blog.jmir.org/hubfs/StoryTap%20Blog%20-%20Avigail%20Lithwick%20Algon.png) Parkinson disease (PD) is predominantly recognized for its motor symptoms, yet covert cognitive decline affects many patients long before dementia occurs. Traditional in-person cognitive testing presents substantial barriers: severe mobility impairments make traveling to clinics difficult, expert evaluations suffer from long waitlists, and screening tools like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) rely heavily on fine motor tasks like drawing, which can confound cognitive scores. | --- **Key Takeaways** | | --- | | Minimized Motor Burden: The Online Rapid Cognitive Assessment for Parkinson’s Disease (ORCA-PD) is a 15-minute, self-administered assessment that replaces traditional high-precision drawing or mouse-tracking tasks with simple keyboard responses, preventing physical tremors from distorting cognitive results. | | High Practical Usability: In a trial involving 112 participants across more than 30 geographical locations, the tool achieved a 93% completion rate, with user satisfaction scores ranging from 4 to 5 out of 5. | | Validated Clinical Accuracy: The assessment maintains high convergent validity with standard clinical benchmarks like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and successfully isolates cognitive function from physical motor symptom severity, allowing it to effectively distinguish between cognitive stages in Parkinson disease patients. --- | Listen to this blog post 3:12 ---   In a [mixed-methods study](https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e90057/) published in the [*Journal of Medical Internet Research*](https://www.jmir.org/), researcher **Avigail Lithwick Algon and colleagues** at [**Tel Aviv University**](https://english.tau.ac.il/) address these barriers with the development and validation of the **Online Rapid Cognitive Assessment for Parkinson’s Disease (ORCA-PD)**. ### Designing a Remote, Motor-Minimized Screening Tool ORCA-PD is a 15-minute, fully self-administered web-based assessment designed to capture PD-specific cognitive changes remotely while reducing physical demands: - **Low Motor Burden:** Replaces complex drawing or high-precision mouse tracking with simple two-choice keyboard responses to prevent motor tremors from distorting cognitive measurements. - **Targeted Cognitive Tasks:** Incorporates 8 brief measures (5 performance tasks and 3 questionnaires) chosen for high sensitivity to PD based on prior meta-analyses, including Digit Span variants, Line Orientation Matching, and Alternate Task Switching. - **High Usability Across Regions:** In a trial of 112 participants spanning more than 30 geographical locations, the tool achieved a **93% completion rate**, with median user satisfaction scores of 4 to 5 out of 5. ### Preliminary Validation and Discriminative Power To establish validity, researchers evaluated ORCA-PD against standard clinical benchmarks: - **Convergent Validity with MoCA:** ORCA-PD scores correlated significantly with online-administered MoCA scores (rho = 0.45, P < .001), confirming that it measures overlapping cognitive domains without requiring a clinician's presence. - **Independence from Motor Severity:** ORCA-PD scores showed no correlation with motor impairment scores on the MDS-UPDRS III, demonstrating that the test accurately isolates cognitive function from physical symptom severity. - **Sensitivity to Cognitive Stages:** The tool successfully differentiated neurotypical controls from participants with PD (beta = 4.18, P = .048), and distinguished PD patients without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from those with PD-MCI (beta = 7.22, P = .046). |   | In this video, researcher Avigail Lithwick Algon from Tel Aviv University presents the development and preliminary validation of ORCA-PD, an online, self-administered cognitive screening tool tailored specifically for Parkinson’s disease (PD). |   | | --- | --- | --- |   Why JMIR? The authors chose the *Journal of Medical Internet Research* to publish this work because of the journal's focus on digital health tools, remote neuropsychological testing, and scalable telehealth innovations. As neurological care increasingly moves toward decentralized models, ORCA-PD offers a validated, accessible solution for early cognitive screening and continuous home monitoring between clinic visits. **Interested in remote cognitive monitoring for Parkinson disease?** [Watch the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uekHlZHy8tA) featuring Avigail Lithwick Algon and [read the full study](https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e90057/) to explore the task design, statistical models, and clinical applications. --- Lithwick Algon A, Brisman S, Lin C, Saban W Development and Preliminary Validation of ORCA-PD, an Online Rapid Cognitive Assessment for Parkinson Disease: Mixed Methods Study J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e90057 URL: [https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e90057](https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e90057/) DOI: [10.2196/90057](https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e90057/) ![Liana Ramos, Marketing Associate](https://blog.jmir.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Liana%20Ramos.jpeg?width=150&name=Liana%20Ramos.jpeg) #### Liana Ramos, Marketing Associate [Follow me on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lianaramos/) Liana Ramos is a Marketing Associate at JMIR Publications, dedicated to building data-driven systems that connect scholarly content with the communities that need it most. With five years of experience at the intersection of media, publishing, and audience behaviour, she handles automated lifecycle journeys, author recognition programs, and record-scale digital events for JMIR. Passionate about storytelling and digital strategy, she focuses on making open access digital health research discoverable, scalable, and highly engaging. ### Leave a Comment ## Related Articles [![Virtual Care in Oncology: Access Drivers and Emergency Care Patterns](https://blog.jmir.org/hubfs/StoryTap%20Blog%20-%20Ramya%20Walsan%20V2.png)](https://blog.jmir.org/virtual-care-in-oncology-access-drivers-and-emergency-care-patterns) [Research News](https://blog.jmir.org/tag/research-news) ### [Virtual Care in Oncology: Access Drivers and Emergency Care Patterns](https://blog.jmir.org/virtual-care-in-oncology-access-drivers-and-emergency-care-patterns) Virtual care expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, but understanding which cancer patients use virtual oncology services, and how it connects to unplanned... ![Liana Ramos, Marketing Associate](https://blog.jmir.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Liana%20Ramos.jpeg?width=45&name=Liana%20Ramos.jpeg) [Liana Ramos, Marketing Associate](https://blog.jmir.org/author/liana-ramos) [Read More](https://blog.jmir.org/virtual-care-in-oncology-access-drivers-and-emergency-care-patterns) [![A scoping review published in JMIR Medical Education by Juliana Samson her team examines the post-pandemic literature on virtual simulated placements. ](https://blog.jmir.org/hubfs/00%20Marketing/Announcement%20Headers/Juliana%20Samson%20blog.png)](https://blog.jmir.org/virtual-placements-real-results-promise-and-considerations-in-healthcare-education-research) [Research News](https://blog.jmir.org/tag/research-news) ### [The Promise of Virtual Placements in Healthcare](https://blog.jmir.org/virtual-placements-real-results-promise-and-considerations-in-healthcare-education-research) The landscape of healthcare education underwent a significant transformation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when it came to students’ practice... ![Reviewed by Kayleigh-Ann Clegg, PhD](https://blog.jmir.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Headshot.jpg?width=45&name=Headshot.jpg) [Reviewed by Kayleigh-Ann Clegg, PhD](https://blog.jmir.org/author/reviewed-by-kayleigh-ann-clegg-phd) [Read More](https://blog.jmir.org/virtual-placements-real-results-promise-and-considerations-in-healthcare-education-research) #### About - Menu Item One - Menu Item Two - Menu Item Three #### Services - Menu Item One - Menu Item Two - Menu Item Three #### News - Menu Item One - Menu Item Two - Menu Item Three Follow us on Facebook Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Liana Ramos, Marketing Associate", "url" : "https://blog.jmir.org/author/liana-ramos" }, "dateModified" : "2026-08-18T17:44:41.464Z", "datePublished" : "2026-08-05T13:30:00.000Z", "headline" : "Remote Cognitive Screening in Parkinson Disease: Validating the ORCA-PD Tool", "image" : [ "https://blog.jmir.org/hubfs/StoryTap%20Blog%20-%20Avigail%20Lithwick%20Algon.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.jmir.org/remote-cognitive-screening-in-parkinson-disease-validating-the-orca-pd-tool", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.jmir.org/hubfs/JMIR-Publications_logo_2020_original.png" }, "name" : "JMIR Publications" } } ```