Researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) and the University of Sussex, will use techniques developed to catalogue galaxies to analyse GP data in a search for early indicators of the medical condition. The Astrodem study, which will look at 96,000 sets of records, has been awarded 94,000 by the Wellcome Trust. It will look into data including the number of appointments a patient has had, or whether they attended with a family member, and combine it with other clinical information known to predict dementia. The aim is to provide a wide range of indicators that may help GPs identify their patients at high risk of developing it. Project lead Dr Elizabeth Ford said: "Dementia is one of the greatest public health challenges of our era and more timely diagnosis may help many patients. "GPs could benefit from a'real-time' risk stratification tool to use in their workflow, which could then be used sensitively to bring up the topic of memory problems and perhaps start a conversation about a referral for a memory assessment, if they feel it is appropriate." Dr Philip Rooney, a research fellow in astrophysics at Sussex, who will conduct much of the data analysis, said: "We regularly apply statistical and machine-learning techniques to catalogues of galaxies and galaxy spectra.