--- title: Linus Health DCTclock: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 description: Find out why Linus Health DCTclock is one of the best inventions of 2021 canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113080/dctclock/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-11-10T11:11:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:55:40.040Z og:title: Linus Health DCTclock: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 og:description: Find out why Linus Health DCTclock made this year's list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113080/dctclock/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06f39489066792a8/698a1e8db3fce36ed60c87e8/best-inventions-2021-DCTclock-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Linus Health DCTclock: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Linus Health DCTclock: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 twitter:description: Find out why Linus Health DCTclock made this year's list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06f39489066792a8/698a1e8db3fce36ed60c87e8/best-inventions-2021-DCTclock-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 10, 2021 # Early Detection for Cognitive Decline Linus Health DCTclock by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  The number of people worldwide with dementia is projected to reach 139 million by 2050, but it is still thought to be underdiagnosed. A new innovation aims to change that—[Linus Health DCTclock](https://linus.health/blog/digital-clock-drawing-test-can-detect-alzheimers-biomarkers-in-individuals), an upgrade to a longstanding test in which a patient draws the face of a clock with a pen and paper—a simple task that picks up signs of declining spatial reasoning, memory and fine motor skills. Linus’ innovation uses a digitizing pen to capture hundreds of subtler details that might otherwise be invisible to clinicians. —_Tara Law_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113080/dctclock/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113080/dctclock/"},"headline":"Early Detection for Cognitive Decline","datePublished":"2021-11-10T11:11:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:55:40.040Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113080/dctclock/","keywords":["list","franchise","best inventions","Best Inventions 2021"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06f39489066792a8/698a1e8db3fce36ed60c87e8/best-inventions-2021-DCTclock-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06f39489066792a8/698a1e8db3fce36ed60c87e8/best-inventions-2021-DCTclock-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6113080/dctclock/","name":"Early Detection for Cognitive Decline"}}]}] ```