Defogging Post-COVID Cognitive Dysfunction: Potential Mechanisms, Diagnostic Challenges

Michael Peluso, MD, Assistant Professor, Medicine, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine

Dr. Peluso is an infectious disease clinical-translational physician-scientist and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. His primary interests are COVID-19 and HIV.  Dr. Peluso is managing a large observational study of people who previously had SARS-CoV-2 infection with the goal of understanding the long-term biological and immunological consequences of COVID-19. In addition, he is currently involved with clinical and laboratory research aimed at understanding the HIV reservoir and implementing clinical trials to disrupt the reservoir with the aim of inducing antiretroviral therapy-free HIV remission.

Natalie Lambert, PhD, Associate Research Professor, Indiana University School of Medicine

Dr. Lambert is a communication expert and medical researcher with over 10 years of experience discovering the social, attitudinal, and environmental factors of health by engaging with hundreds of thousands of patients via innovative channels and methodologies. As an associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Sciences at Indiana University School of Medicine, Dr. Lambert researches the symptomatology and health impacts of long COVID (also called PASC). Her research is focused on understanding patients’ experiences with chronic disease, and she does this by collaborating with patient groups and engaging with patients in online spaces. Dr. Lambert uses computational analytics and her health communication expertise to create research-based, innovative patient engagement strategies.

Current Projects Include:

• Conducting COVID-19 research by engaging with COVID survivors in Survivor Corps, a patient advocacy group with 170,000+ members
• Characterization of long COVID sequelae and health impacts
• Creation of models explaining factors related to patient dissatisfaction while seeking medical care
• Capture of weight loss and exercise behavior change “pivots” via analysis of successful behavior change narratives in peer-to-peer online spaces
• Identification of communication factors that predict successful peer support in a peer support platform for adolescents experiencing maltreatment
• Identification of the best algorithms for topic modeling of unstructured health narratives collected from peer-to-peer online communities
• Assessing unmet information needs of women just diagnosed with breast cancer

Paul Maruff, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer, Cogstate

Professor Paul Maruff is one of the founders of Cogstate and served as Chief Science Officer before taking on the role of Chief Innovation Officer. He is a neuropsychologist with expertise in the identification and measurement of subtle behavioral and cognitive dysfunction. Paul’s research integrates conventional and computerized neuropsychological testing with cognitive neuroscientific methods to guide decision making in drug development and in clinical medicine.

He has worked extensively on method to identify subtle neurocognitive impairment, and to assess the efficacy of pharmacological treatment, in Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment and the HIV dementia complex. He has extended this approach to identify cognitive dysfunction, and monitor treatment efficacy in psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression in adults, attention deficit disorder, developmental dyspraxia and substance abuse in children.

Paul remains an active researcher. He is appointed Professor at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health. He is currently clinical co-chair of the Australian Imaging Biomakers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study. Paul has published over 450 research articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has co-authored 15 book chapters.

(Moderator) Elizabeth Merikle, Vice President, Product Dev & MA Consulting, Labcorp Inc.

Merikle has over 20 years’ experience in health economics and outcomes research, instrument development and validation, and health services research, in industry, academia, and consulting. Dr. Merikle leads Labcorp Drug Development’s Patient Centered Assessment consulting group, which assists client companies with patient-focused assessment and regulatory strategy within the context of clinical development in the US and Europe, executes qualitative and quantitative studies to support labeling claims based on these endpoints, and develops data on patient experience. She recently directed a successful qualitative and quantitative research program for the use of a PRO instrument as a co-primary endpoint with biomarker to support approval.  Dr. Merikle has experience in PROs within neurology, psychiatry, cardiovascular, endocrinology, urology, and rare diseases. Dr. Merikle has co-authored over 30 peer reviewed publications across a range of therapeutic areas. Before joining Labcorp Drug Development’s she was a senior director in the outcomes research group at Takeda Pharmaceuticals leading the neuroscience outcomes research team.  Dr. Merikle received her MA in cognitive psychology and her PhD in program evaluation and research methodology from the University of Arizona.