This list compiles top Cognitive Screening and Assessment tools used in practice, ranked with consideration of utility, evidence, breadth of assessment, ease of administration, scalability, and ability to support cognitive care beyond the initial test. The top pick is BrainCheck due to its extensive toolset, simplified testing, scalable deployment, and inclusion of care planning, not just screening for possible impairment.
Cognitive screening can help identify changes in memory, attention, executive function, processing speed, and other cognitive abilities. As earlier identification becomes increasingly important and new biomarkers and treatments for Alzheimer's and other dementias become available, practices and healthcare organizations have more options for evaluating cognition than ever before.
There is no single cognitive screening tool that is right for every patient or clinical setting. A busy primary care practice may prioritize speed and simplicity, while a neurology or geriatrics practice may require a more comprehensive assessment. Health systems building population-level cognitive-care programs may place greater importance on digital administration, standardized scoring, Electronic Health Record (EHR) integration, care planning, population health analytics, and longitudinal monitoring.
Below are 10 leading cognitive screening and assessment tools reviewed by BrainCheck’s VP Clinical & Regulatory, Mary Patterson.
To break them down, we have each labeled for comparison:
Simple Screener — a brief instrument that flags possible impairment and indicates whether further evaluation is needed
Extended Assessment — a more detailed, multi-domain evaluation of cognitive performance
Screening + Care Platform — technology that spans screening, assessment, interpretation, and ongoing care planning within a single workflow
| Tool | Category | Format | Admin Time | Best Fit |
| BrainCheck |
Screening + Care Platform |
Digital platform |
Screen ~3 min; Assess ~15 min |
Primary care, neurology, behavioral health practices, and health systems |
| MoCA | Extended Assessment | Paper-based, clinician-administered | ~10 min | Primary care, neurology, or geriatrics practices |
| Mini-Cog | Simple Screener | Paper/verbal, clinician-administered | ~3 min | Busy primary care or urgent care settings |
| SLUMS | Extended Assessment | Paper-based, clinician-administered | ~7-10 min | Primary care wanting a free, comprehensive paper screen |
| Linus Health | Screening + Care Platform | Digital platform/device | CCE ~8 min; DCR ~2-3 min | Neurology practices, memory clinics, clinical-trial settings |
| Cognivue | Extended Assessment | Digital device, proprietary hardware | Thrive ~5 min; Clarity ~10 min | Practices willing to invest in dedicated equipment |
| Creyos | Screening + Care Platform | Digital platform, subscription | Brief ~5 min; full battery ~30 min | Primary care, neurology, and behavioral health practices |
| GPCOG | Simple Screener | Paper-based; web-based version available | ~4-6 min total | Primary care wanting a quick screen with informant input |
| AD8 | Simple Screener | Paper/verbal, self- or informant-administered | ~3 min | Primary care wanting a pre-visit screen |
| MMSE-2 | Extended Assessment | Paper-based, clinician-administered, licensed | Brief ~5 min; Standard ~10-15 min; Expanded longer | Practices wanting continuity with historical MMSE results |
Category: Screening + Care Platform
Format: Digital platform requiring adoption
Administration Time: Screen ≈ 3 minutes; Assess ≈ 15 minutes
Best Fit: Primary care, neurology, behavioral health practices, and health systems
BrainCheck is best for screening, assessment, and care planning in one integrated cognitive-care platform.
BrainCheck is a Screening + Care Platform. It is a digital cognitive assessment and care plan platform designed to support patients from initial identification through screening, assessment, interpretation, care planning, and longitudinal follow-up.
BrainCheck is used across more than 500 healthcare organizations, spanning primary care, geriatrics, neurology, behavioral health, and academic research, including Cleveland Clinic, UPMC, Bon Secours, and Springfield Clinic, and by more than 100 neurologists.
BrainCheck grounds itself in clinical rigor, including 39 peer-reviewed publications, academic research collaborations, and a 5,000-patient normative database. Published research has demonstrated that BrainCheck Assess has sensitivity of 86% for mild cognitive impairment and 88% for dementia, and specificity of 83% for mild cognitive impairment and 94% for dementia.
BrainCheck is made for practices and health systems seeking to build a scalable cognitive-care program, rather than administer an isolated cognitive test, to support a proactive approach to cognitive care.
Learn more: braincheck.com
Category: Extended Assessment
Format: Traditional paper-based, clinician-administered screen
Administration Time: ≈ 10 minutes
Best Fit: Primary care, neurology, or geriatrics practices
The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is best for widely recognized clinician-administered screening for mild cognitive impairment.
The MoCA is an Extended Assessment. The standard MoCA takes approximately 10 minutes and evaluates multiple areas of cognition, including short-term memory, visuospatial abilities, executive function, attention, working memory, language, and orientation. MoCA has been extensively studied and is particularly well known for its use in detecting mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It is a standalone screener; it does not include care planning or longitudinal workflow tools.
Learn more: mocacognition.com
Category: Simple Screener
Format: Traditional (paper/verbal, clinician-administered)
Administration Time: ≈ 3 minutes
Best Fit: Busy primary care or urgent care settings
The Mini-Cog is best for rapid cognitive screening in primary care.
The Mini-Cog is a Simple Screener. It combines three-word recall with a clock-drawing task and can generally be completed in approximately three minutes. Its simplicity has made it particularly useful in settings where clinicians need to identify patients who may warrant additional cognitive evaluation without significantly disrupting the visit.
Learn more: mini-cog.com
Category: Extended Assessment
Format: Traditional paper-based, clinician-administered
Administration Time: ≈ 7–10 minutes
Best Fit: Primary care or settings wanting a free, relatively comprehensive paper screen
The Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination (SLUMS) is best for traditional multidomain cognitive screening.
SLUMS is an Extended Assessment. It is a clinician-administered screening instrument designed to identify cognitive impairment. It evaluates areas including orientation, memory, attention, executive function, and visuospatial ability. SLUMS provides clinicians with a relatively comprehensive traditional cognitive screen without requiring specialized digital technology. It is a paper-based, standalone tool; it does not include care planning or longitudinal workflow tools.
Learn more: SLU School of Medicine — SLUMS Exam
Category: Screening + Care Platform
Format: Digital platform/device requiring adoption.
Administration Time: ≈8 minutes for Core Cognitive Evaluation™, ≈2-3 minutes for DCTClock and DCR
Best Fit: Neurology practices, memory clinics, and clinical-trial settings
Linus Health is best for digital analysis of subtle aspects of clock-drawing performance.
Linus Health is a Screening + Care Platform. Its current flagship product is the Core Cognitive Evaluation™ (CCE), which pairs Digital Clock and Recall (DCR™) — clock drawing plus immediate and delayed word recall — with a Life and Health Questionnaire covering broader dementia risk factors. Both are powered by DCTClock™, the company's underlying AI engine, which analyzes how a patient draws, not just the finished clock, to surface subtle impairment traditional scoring can miss. Beyond the assessment itself, the platform generates clinical decision support and personalized patient action plans, supports longitudinal monitoring through EHR integration, and, for payer and health-system clients, uses a predictive engine (Radar) to analyze claims and clinical data and flag at-risk members before they're ever screened.
Learn more: linushealth.com/our-assessments
Category: Extended Assessment
Format: Digital device with dedicated proprietary hardware requiring purchase or lease.
Administration Time: Cognivue Thrive® ≈ 5 minutes; Cognivue Clarity® ≈ 10 minutes
Best Fit: Practices wanting self-administered, standardized testing and willing to invest in dedicated equipment
Cognivue is best for self-administered, FDA-cleared computerized cognitive testing.
Cognivue is an Extended Assessment. It is delivered through computerized cognitive assessment technology designed to reduce the staff burden associated with traditional cognitive testing. Cognivue assessments are self-administered using a dedicated device. The platform evaluates cognitive areas including memory, executive function, attention, discrimination, and visuospatial performance.
Learn more: cognivue.com
Category: Screening + Care Platform
Format: Digital platform requiring a subscription adoption
Administration Time: Brief screener ≈ 5 minutes; full battery ≈ 30 minutes
Best Fit: Primary care, neurology, and behavioral health practices
Creyos is best for detailed web-based cognitive-domain measurement.
Creyos, formerly Cambridge Brain Sciences, is a Screening + Care Platform. It provides cognitive assessments covering areas such as memory, reasoning, concentration, and verbal ability. The underlying cognitive tasks have a substantial academic research history and can be administered digitally, either in a clinical environment or remotely. Creyos can be particularly useful when clinicians or researchers want more detailed domain-specific cognitive information. Care-planning tools are a newer addition to the platform, not the original core design, which was built around detailed cognitive measurement.
Learn more: creyos.com
Category: Simple Screener
Format: Traditional paper-based; web-based version also available, clinician-administered
Administration Time: ≈ 4 minutes (patient) plus ≈ 2 minutes (informant, if needed) — under 5 minutes total
Best Fit: Primary care practices wanting a quick screen that also captures real-world functional context
The General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition (GPCOG) is best for primary-care screening incorporating an informant.
GPCOG is a Simple Screener. It was developed specifically for primary-care physicians. An important feature of GPCOG is its ability to combine direct patient testing with information from someone who knows the patient well. This can be valuable because dementia involves not only cognitive-test performance but changes in everyday functioning. GPCOG is a standalone instrument; it does not include care planning or longitudinal workflow tools.
Learn more: gpcog.com.au
Category: Simple Screener
Format: Traditional paper/verbal and self- or informant-administered.
Administration Time: ≈ 3 minutes
Best Fit: Primary care practices wanting a pre-visit screen completed by the patient or a caregiver
AD8 is best for identifying cognitive change through patient or informant observations.
AD8 is a Simple Screener. It consists of eight questions that focus on whether there has been a meaningful change from an individual's previous level of functioning. Questions address areas such as judgment, interests, learning to use new devices, handling finances, remembering appointments, and everyday thinking and memory. This makes AD8 quite different from performance-based cognitive tests and potentially useful as a complementary measure. It flags possible change but does not perform cognitive testing itself, and has no built-in assessment or care-planning component.
Learn more: Alzheimer's Association — Cognitive Assessment Tools
Category: Extended Assessment
Format: Traditional paper-based, clinician-administered, licensed.
Administration Time: Brief ≈ 5 minutes; Standard ≈ 10–15 minutes; Expanded longer, with added subtests
Best Fit: Practices wanting continuity with decades of prior MMSE results, or long-standing clinician familiarity with the instrument
The Mini-Mental State Examination, Second Edition (MMSE-2) is best for clinical familiarity and historical comparison.
MMSE-2 is an Extended Assessment. The original Mini-Mental State Examination is one of the most historically recognizable cognitive tests, and MMSE-2 maintains that familiar approach while offering Brief, Standard, and Expanded versions. The Standard version generally takes approximately 10–15 minutes. Its greatest advantage may be familiarity: generations of clinicians have used the MMSE, and its scoring system is widely understood. It is a standalone cognitive test; it does not include care planning or longitudinal workflow tools.
Learn more: PAR — MMSE-2
For practices that want an end-to-end digital cognitive screening solution that spans proactive screening, screening and assessment for cognitive impairment signals, and an actionable care plan that sets the scene for how to proceed, BrainCheck is a strong fit.
However, there is no single correct answer when choosing a cognitive screening or assessment tool — the right choice depends on a practice's setting, patient population, and workflow.
As cognitive care shifts toward more proactive, longitudinal models, tools that support the full pathway — from identification through screening, assessment, care planning, and follow-up — can make that shift easier to operationalize at scale. BrainCheck is one example of that full cognitive care pathway built into one platform.