] A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will organize and convene a two-day public workshop focused on improving the diagnostics used to assess cognitive change. The workshop will inform the work of NIH’s National Institutes of Aging, among others. Prior to the workshop, a commissioned paper regarding best practices for cognitive assessments will be drafted to help frame the workshop discussion. The following key questions will be addressed in the workshop:
• What is the state of the science for change measurement in cognitive diagnostics and what standards would modern change-assessment methods have to meet in order to identify both normal and pathological trajectories?
• What are the most promising developments in statistical modeling of change that integrate both population-level norms and individual-level score information?
• What are best practices and intervals for assessing change in cognitive functioning, for short- and long-term applications, and how might that inform the future of cognitive testing?
• What are the potential benefits and costs of moving from cognitive-status-based cross-sectional population norms towards population change norms?
• What assessment methods can be used to improve measurement density in a feasible manner?
The planning committee will develop the agenda, identify meeting objectives, commission the paper on best practices, and select appropriate participants. A proceedings-in-brief will be prepared by a designated rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines.