Baycrest Dementia Toolkit

Designing to Detect What Often Goes Undetected

Company:

Baycrest Medical

Role:

Design Research Lead & UX Designer

Timeline:

Multi-institutional project | 6+ months | Co-creation with clinicians & health researchers

Challenge

Dementia is often missed in primary care settings, not because physicians don’t care, but because they don’t have the right tools.

Existing cognitive assessment processes are inconsistent, time-consuming, and often fail to account for the nuanced decision-making required in everyday practice. Meanwhile, patients, especially from equity-deserving communities, go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for years.

Our challenge: Design a simple, accessible toolkit that supports clinical confidence, fosters earlier detection, and centers patient dignity.

Approach

We didn’t just design a tool.

We co-created a clinical companion, one that listens as much as it guides.

Grounded in design for health principles and trauma informed care, our approach combined:

Human-centered research with physicians, patients, and caregivers

Service mapping of the dementia screening journey

UX design of a digital toolkit that supports flexible, evidence-based decision-making

Information architecture that reduces cognitive load and supports trust