About Cognisoft ApS
Cognisoft ApS is located in Hillerod, Denmark, 35 km north of Copenhagen. Specialized software for neuropsychological rehabilitation and assessment developed and supported by neuropsychologist DMSc. Palle M. Pedersen, is marketed by the company to professionals and their patients.
COGNIsoft-I for cognitive rehabilitation was released in its first software version designed for DOS in 1990 before Windows appeared. Since then, the program has been expanded and redeveloped for Windows, and continual development has kept the program compatible with the latest versions of Windows, including Windows 7.
COGNIsoft-I was originally developed in Danish, but for a number of years has also been available and used in Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian. Now, since December 2010, new English and German translations have been released, and the entire software program has become available to the medical and rehab therapy community world-wide through the eCommerce vendor Avangate.
Additional rehabilitation software from Cognisoft is at present available in Danish only. This includes "Afasi-Assistent" (Aphasia assistant), a comprehensive system for rehabilitation of aphasia - language disturbances after stroke and other brain diseases. A research paper published by Palle M. Pedersen is available in the scientific journal "Aphasiology" on the use of this program for 3 patients with aphasia.
Palle M. Pedersen, DMSc
Palle M. Pedersen worked in his early ears as a computer programmer during the 1970s writing, COBOL programs on punched cards for IBM 360 and 370 mainframe computers. After completing his psychology studies in 1984, he discovered that microcomputers could be helpful for his patients. First he developed a set of programs for the Commodore 64 to help severely physically handicapped, mentally retarded persons communicate.
At the Center for Rehabilitation of Brain Damage at the University of Copenhagen he became acquainted with Apple II programs for rehabilitation of cognitive dysfunctions in brain injured persons. But, dissatisfied with the lack of flexibility in speed and levels of difficulty plus lack of detailed result output in these programs, he began developing a new program for the IBM PC that would eventually become COGNIsoft-I in 1990 and be continually refined, expanded and updated to take advantage of new technological and medical advances in the following years.
From 1989 to 2004, Palle M. Pedersen served as a Clinical Neuropsychologist in the Department of Neurology at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen. In this period he also took part in the Copenhagen Stroke Study during which he was first-author of a number of research papers on neuropsychological symptoms in stroke. This led to award of his Doctoral Degree in Medical Science (DMSc) from the University of Copenhagen in 1999.
It was during these years that he also conducted a study on the frequency, types and time-course of aphasia in stroke, and on the effectiveness of computerized rehabilitation of aphasia. From 2004-2006, Dr. Pedersen headed the neuropsychological unit at the Neurological Department of Hillerod Hospital, and in 2006 he began a full-time private practice with offices in Hillerod and central Copenhagen.
Selected research papers
Click the titles to download the papers as PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files.
Pedersen,P.M., Vinter,K., and Olsen,T.S. "Aphasia after stroke: type, severity and prognosis. The Copenhagen Aphasia Study." Cerebrovasc.Dis. 17 (2004): 35-43.
Pedersen,P.M., Vinter,K., and Olsen,T.S. "Improvement of oral naming by unsupervised computerised rehabilitation." Aphasiology 15 (2001): 151-169.
Pedersen,P.M., Vinter,K., and Olsen,T.S. "The communicative effectiveness index: Psychometric properties of a Danish adaptation." Aphasiology 15 (2001): 787-802.
Pedersen,P.M., Jørgensen,H.S., Kammersgaard,L.P., Nakayama,H., Raaschou,H.O., Olsen,.T.S. Manual and Oral Apraxia in Acute Stroke. Frequency and Influence on Functional Outcome. The Copenhagen Stroke Study. Americal Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 80 (2001): 685-692.
Pedersen,P.M., et al. "Comprehensive assessment of activities of daily living in stroke. The Copenhagen Stroke Study." Archives of Physical and Medical Rehabilitation 78 (1997): 161-165.
Pedersen,P.M., et al. "Hemineglect in acute stroke--incidence and prognostic implications. The Copenhagen Stroke Study." American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 76 (1997): 122-127.
Pedersen,P.M., et al. "Frequency, determinants, and consequences of anosognosia in acute stroke." Journal of Neurologic Rehabilitation 10 (1996): 243-250.
Pedersen,P.M., Jørgensen,H.S., Nakayama,H., Raaschou,H.O., and Olsen,T.S. "Orientation in the acute and cronic stroke patient: Impact on ADL and social activities. The Copenhagen Stroke Study." Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 77 (1996): 336-339.
Pedersen,P.M., et al. "Ipsilateral pushing in stroke: incidence, relation to neuropsychological symptoms, and impact on rehabilitation. The Copenhagen Stroke Study." Archives of Physical and Medical Rehabilitation 77 (1996): 25-28.
Pedersen,P.M., Jørgensen,H.S., Nakayama,H., Raaschou,H.O., and Olsen,T.S. "Aphasia in acute stroke: incidence, determinants, and recovery." Annals of Neurology 38 (1995): 659-666.