About

The ECDC Clinic

The Eastern Cognitive Disorders Clinic (ECDC) offers a cognitive diagnostic service and is based at Box Hill Hospital, in the Eastern Health region of Melbourne, Victoria.

Referrals are accepted from medical practitioners for patients who have neurological illnesses with cognitive symptoms, and cognitive syndromes which may pose diagnostic difficulties. Patients are seen from throughout Victoria and interstate.

ECDC offers a multidisciplinary specialist service. Patients with suspected cognitive disorders may be diagnosed, and along with their family/carers, receive education regarding their condition and prognosis. Patients and carers may also be linked in to available support services. We also run a monthly group for people who are caring for someone with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD).

ECDC has a special interest in progressive brain disorders (dementias) which occur in younger people. Young onset dementias are usually defined as people presenting before the age of 65. All staff members have extensive clinical experience and are highly skilled in the recognition and management of unusual cognitive syndromes. Whilst the ECDC provides diagnostic services for all types of dementia, it has established particular expertise in the diagnosis and management of FTD.

The clinic is under the direction of Behavioural Neurologist, Prof Amy Brodtmann, with neurologists A/Prof David Darby and Dr Chris Kyndt, and staffed by Cognitive Nurse Consultant Janet Bennet, Speech Pathologist Courtney Lewis, Occupational Therapist Laine Bradley, Neuropsychologist Dr Natalie Reidy, Research Officers Derek English and Dr Marcia Chew, and Clinic Co-ordinator Yin Hong.

Prof Amy Brodtmann is a cognitive neurologist, with a research background in stroke, neuroimaging and dementia. She received her medical degree from the University of Melbourne before completing specialty training in neurology at Austin Health and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Her PhD was completed in 2004 in functional magnetic resonance imaging, stroke and normal aging. She travelled to Chicago to do post-doctoral work at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Centre, a recognized centre of excellence in frontotemporal dementia.

Upon her return to Australia and the Florey Neuroscience Institutes (FNI) as a NHMRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, she continued her research interests in imaging, stroke and dementia. She established the ECDC in 2008, in response to a Melbourne need for a specialist FTD clinic. She is an Associate Editor for the American Academy of Neurology's primary journal Neurology. She also became the Co-Head of the Behavioural Neuroscience division of FNI in 2009, and continues to be active in research in vascular dementia and FTD, as well as advocacy for service provision and carer support in FTD.

A/Prof Darby graduated from Medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1981, completing a PhD in neurology and neuropsychology in 1990, and his neurology training in 1991. He served as an instructor in Behavioral Neurology at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School from 1992 to 1995.

He was Chairman of the Memory Disorders Service at the Repatriation Campus of the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre from 1997 to 2000, and consultant to the Eastern Cognitive Disorders Clinic, and regional Victoria. 

Prof Darby has published over 130 research papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and has co-authored a neuropsychological textbook with Prof Kevin Walsh. He was a founder for CogState Ltd in 1999 which has developed computerized cognitive testing instruments for early detection of cognitive impairment including dementia in the earliest stages, and is also Associate Professor at Monash University and the University of Melbourne. Awarded Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine 2011 for this work. He is a clinical investigator for the Australian Imaging Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study. His current research interests are focused on wide-scale community screening for prodromal dementia, both Alzheimer’s disease and fronto-temporal dementia, cognitive evaulation of concussion in sport and multiple sclerosis. He is the developer of iOS and Android applications to aid cognitive testing.

Dr Chris Kyndt is a Cognitive and General Neurologist.

Dr Chris Kyndt MBBS BSc (Imperial College London 2008) FRACP completed a 2- year Cognitive Fellowship at the Eastern Cognitive Disorders Clinic (ECDC) with an ongoing Consultant appointment. He has additional roles at the Cognitive Dementia and Memory Service (CDAMS) Wantirna Health, Cognitive Neurology Service Royal Melbourne Hospital and the state-wide Victorian Stroke Telemedicine (VST) service. He has specific expertise in young onset and atypical dementias, fronto-temporal dementia, primary progressive aphasia and autoimmune encephalitis. He is a trial investigator at the Eastern Clinical Research Unit and Melbourne Health Cognitive Trial Unit with both principal and sub-investigator roles on a number of Alzheimer’s disease trials. He was a research study coordinator on the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial focusing on the cognitive assessment process and dementia end-point validation. He continues involvement on this study as an adjudicator on the dementia end-point subcommittee. He was part of the Florey Institute Brain imaging Study (BICS) providing screening for Alzheimer’s disease patients for future trial enrolment. He is currently an investigator with the MRFF-funded Autoimmune Encephalitis Consortium Project focusing on the cognitive arm evaluating acute and chronic cognitive outcomes. He participates in audit and teaching initiatives at each of his hospitals.

Dr Natalie Reidy BASc MPsych (Clin Neuro) PhD is a senior clinical Neuropsychologist, specialising in understanding the cognitive changes that occur in dementia, and how that can inform diagnosis.

Natalie completed a Masters in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Melbourne, and a PhD examining language function and its relationship to white matter microstructure. She has a range of clinical experience, including stroke rehabilitation, assessment of cognition in movement disorders and other neurological conditions, diagnosis of rare and young-onset dementia, and the assessment of decision-making capacity in those with a cognitive disability.

Courtney is a speech pathologist providing specialist assessment services to the Eastern Cognitive Disorders Clinic.

She is a speech pathologist with clinical and research experience in progressive neurological communication disorders. She is a PhD candidate within the Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, and an Associate Lecturer in the Master of Speech Pathology course at the University of Melbourne. Courtney works clinically at the Eastern Cognitive Disorders Clinic. Her research interests involve the assessment and management of communication impairment in frontotemporal dementia.

ECDC Associates