Use of Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) for the Detection of Dementia in Primary Care
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* Jancarla Ocampo
* Michael E. Johansen

The *Annals of Family Medicine* encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health and health care through enhanced primary care. With the *Annals* Journal Club, we encourage diverse participants—particularly among students, trainees, residents, and interns—to think critically about and discuss important issues affecting primary care, and even consider how their discussions might inform their practice.1

## HOW IT WORKS

The *Annals* provides discussion tips and questions related to one original research article in each issue. We welcome you to post a summary of your conversation to our eLetters section, a forum for readers to share their responses to *Annals* articles. Further information and links to previous *Annals* Journal Club features can be found on our website.

## CURRENT SELECTION

> Abdulrahman H, Jansen E, Hoevenaar-Blom M, van Dalen JW, van Wanrooij LL, van Bussel E, et al. Diagnostic accuracy of the telephone interview for cognitive status for the detection of dementia in primary care. *Ann Fam Med*. 2022;20(2):130-136. [https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2768](https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2768)

## DISCUSSION TIPS

Dementia diagnosis in primary care is challenging, time consuming, and consequential. Alternative methods of screening would be appreciated by practicing clinicians. The authors explored the use of the telephone interview for cognitive status (TICS) for dementia screening. With the transition to more telehealth visits in primary care because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is even easier to see how telephone-based screening could be helpful.

## DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

*   What question is asked by this study and why does it matter?

*   What are the main study findings?

*   What is a gold standard diagnosis?

*   What are sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value? How do they relate to the question asked in this paper?

*   Does the current COVID-19 pandemic impact your opinion on the importance of this study?

*   How strong is the study design for answering the question?

*   What is imputation and why did the authors use imputation in this paper?

*   To what degree can the findings be accounted for by:
    
    1.  How patients were selected for inclusion into the study
    
    2.  The ability for participants to use external clues to answer questions
    
    3.  How dementia was diagnosed

*   How comparable is the study sample to similar patients in your practice or region? What is your judgment about the transportability of the findings?

*   What contextual factors are important for interpreting the findings?

*   How might this study change your practice? What would the implementation of TICS look like in your practice?

*   What are the next steps in interpreting or applying the findings?

*   What researchable questions remain?

*   © 2022 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

## REFERENCES

1.  1.Stange KC, Miller WL, McLellan LA, et al. *Annals* Journal Club: it’s time to get RADICAL. Ann Fam Med. 2006;4(3):196–197. [http://AnnFamMed.org/cgi/content/full/4/3/196](http://AnnFamMed.org/cgi/content/full/4/3/196)
    
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