From Awareness to Action: Linus Health Drives the Next Era of Early Brain Health Detection

Expanding adoption, evidence, and innovation to support earlier identification and intervention across care and research

BOSTON, Jan. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- 2026 is already shaping up to be a historic year for brain health as the healthcare industry confronts an urgent reality: cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of dementia are rising rapidly, while timely detection and intervention remain out of reach for millions of people. The number of Americans living with Alzheimer's and other dementias is projected to double over the next few decades, from approximately 7 million today to nearly 14 million by 2060.

With this growing prevalence of life-shattering disease, increasing life expectancies, as well as the mounting evidence that lifestyle interventions may be able to prevent 45% of cases, early detection has never been more relevant or urgent. Simultaneously, new disease-modifying therapies and blood biomarker testing increasingly demonstrate that earlier action can meaningfully change outcomes, further demonstrating the need for scalable, clinically practical brain health solutions across healthcare.

Linus Health, an AI-driven brain health company focused on early detection and proactive intervention, is accelerating its work to help health systems, health insurers, and life science companies meet this moment. By applying advanced AI to the analysis of everyday human behaviors such as drawing, speech, and information processing, Linus Health enables earlier identification of cognitive change and underlying disease processes, supporting care decisions at a stage when intervention can have the most significant impact.

Reflecting both its industry leadership and operational progress, Linus Health was honored earlier this week with Modern Healthcare's Best in Business Award in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) category. This esteemed program honors the exceptional contributions of healthcare suppliers, vendors and partners across the healthcare industry.

"Brain health is one of the most urgent issues in healthcare and life sciences," said David Bates, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Linus Health. "Across the industry, there is growing recognition that waiting for symptoms to become obvious is no longer acceptable. As such, during 2025, we also saw meaningful expansion in adoption of our platform across health systems, life science companies, and payers, reinforcing that the industry is ready to move from awareness to action around proactive brain health."

Driving Change
Industry momentum around brain health has accelerated as health systems face specialist shortages, prolonged diagnostic timelines, and rising demand for cognitive evaluation in primary care. At the same time, payers increasingly recognize the need to cover proactive brain health to improve outcomes, quality of life, and cost savings.

Research continues to reinforce that early identification of cognitive impairment, combined with targeted clinical follow-up and lifestyle interventions, can slow progression and preserve function for many people at risk.

In response, Linus Health is sharpening its strategic focus to support earlier identification at scale in care delivery settings while expanding its role in life sciences research, including more efficient recruitment and stratification of participants for clinical trials. By using brief, AI-enabled assessments to surface biologically relevant signals earlier, the company is helping research sponsors identify appropriate candidates sooner and reduce the time, cost, and complexity traditionally associated with trial enrollment.

Similarly, the company also expanded its product portfolio in 2025 with the launch of Anywhere powered by Linus Health™, a remote, clinically validated cognitive assessment platform designed to extend early detection beyond the clinic for healthcare delivery, population health, and research use cases. Separately, Linus Health continued advancing its person-centered ePSOM tool, a distinct patient goals-driven outcomes framework used primarily in research and life sciences settings to capture what individuals value most in their daily lives and to evaluate whether interventions preserve meaningful function.

Expanding Awareness and Evidence Base
Throughout 2025, Linus Health advanced the shift toward early detection with peer-reviewed studies, including two landmark papers released late in the year, demonstrating that its brief, digital cognitive assessments analyzed by AI can detect subtle changes associated with Alzheimer's pathology and cognitive decline earlier than traditional approaches.

These and over 160 other peer-reviewed studies supporting Linus Health's approach reinforce its role as a science-led leader in early brain health detection. In addition to scientific papers, Linus Health has delivered conference presentations, led clinical trials, and conducted validation studies focused on early detection of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. This growing body of evidence reflects a sustained bench-to-bedside commitment, validating the accuracy, clinical relevance, and scalability of Linus Health's digital cognitive assessments across diverse populations and care settings.

Along with its scientific and clinical progress, Linus Health increased national visibility in 2025 through a series of high-profile media interviews focused on the future of brain health and AI-enabled care, including:

• Chief Operating Officer John Showalter, MD, discussed how AI can radically compress dementia diagnostic timelines and expand access to care in an interview with Forbes TV.
• Bates explored industry momentum around early detection, biologically relevant digital biomarkers, and scalable brain health models in interviews with HISTalk and Healthcare IT News.
• U.S. News & World Report interviewed Linus Health Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, for an article on rapidly progressive dementia, emphasizing the importance of early, comprehensive evaluation when cognitive decline accelerates suddenly and reinforcing the need for timely detection.
• Pascual-Leone also was featured in a National Geographic article explaining how hands-on hobbies like knitting engage dopamine pathways for better concentration, slow cognitive decline, and promote neuroplasticity through novel challenges, emphasizing balanced, steady rewards.

Evolving Operating Model
Linus Health also evolved its operating model in 2025, sharpening focus across distinct areas of the business as market demand accelerates, aligning leadership and resources around execution to support faster innovation, targeted expansion across markets, and stronger collaboration with health systems, life sciences, and payers. This approach reflects the goal of building a more integrated, continuum-wide ecosystem that supports patients after earlier identification.

As part of this evolution, Chief Commercial Officer Curt Thornton now has an expanded role as President, Connected Care, leading efforts to build a more integrated ecosystem focused on life sciences, payers, and employers that supports patients with earlier identification and care throughout their journey. Likewise, Chief Customer Officer Leah Ray will now also serve as President, U.S. Healthcare, guiding the continued operationalization and scale of the company's growing health system footprint.

"Our goal is to scale impact responsibly as the brain health landscape changes," said Showalter. "By organizing around focused business units, we are better positioned to support clinicians, expand research partnerships, and deliver solutions that address the real constraints health systems face today. This shift positions us to execute with greater clarity and speed, ensuring our teams are aligned to meet rising demand across healthcare delivery, connected care, and life sciences as brain health becomes a clinical priority."

About Linus Health
Linus Health is a Boston-based digital health company focused on transforming brain health for people around the world. By advancing how we detect and address cognitive and brain disorders leveraging cutting-edge neuroscience, clinical expertise, and artificial intelligence, the company's goal is to enable a future where people can live longer, healthier lives with better brain health. Linus Health's digital cognitive assessment platform delivers a practical means of enabling early detection, empowers providers and researchers with actionable insights, and supports individuals with personalized action plans. The company partners with leading healthcare delivery organizations, research institutions, and life sciences companies to accelerate more proactive intervention and personalized care in brain health. To learn more about our practical solutions for proactive brain health®, visit www.linushealth.com or follow Linus Health on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Tara Stultz (Supreme Communications for Linus Health)
[email protected]

SOURCE Linus Health