Development of a multimodal toolbox to ensure a fast and reliable diagnosis of consciousness disorders

DoCBox aims to develop a new toolbox of fast and easy-to-implement behavioural, neuroimaging and neurophysiological assessments to accurately assess and diagnose patients suffering from a disorder of consciousness (DoC), allowing for a more comprehensive examination and better management of this vulnerable population. This toolbox will respond to the society needs regarding the evaluation of patients with DoC as it appropriately responds to the rigid time constraints of clinical settings, which are one of the biggest limitations for an accurate diagnosis. This project aims to enhance interdisciplinary research on DoC via an exchange of knowledge and international scientific cooperation to translate and validate the tools (e.g., behavioral scales, pipelines) that will be included in this toolbox. This collaboration between the partners underpins the credibility and feasibility of three research objectives:1) Provide new bedside assessment tools to refine and optimize the detection of consciousness signs in post-comatose patients; 2) Identify the most accurate neurophysiological and neuroimaging biomarkers of consciousness states and develop novel easy-to-use software to implement these analyses in clinical settings; 3) Engage informal and formal caregivers in the diagnosis of DoC patients.This will ultimately result in guidelines and policy recommendations for improvement of DoC patients’ diagnosis and thus care. The proposed exchange program aims to bring together a large international and interdisciplinary consortium of 17 partners (EU and non-EU countries) including researchers and other professionals with all necessary skills, permitting to tackle the challenges faced by professionals when studying and caring for DoC patients. The benefits for Europe are the intersector and interdisciplinary massive data collected by this consortium, which will allow a major progress in the understanding of (disorders of) consciousness.