This Fast Track SBIR project will develop an informatics system to assist people with memory impairment. Early stages of Alzheimer's and Alzheimer's related dementia often causes memory concerns. Persons with Memory Concern often cannot match names with faces or cannot recognize faces with a sure feeling of familiarity. Persons with Memory Concern may have difficulty remembering the names of family members and friends or may address them with a wrong name. They recognize the faces they see daily, such as a spouse or caregiver, but they may confuse visiting friends and grandchildren. The inability to remember names or relationships contributes to isolation and deeply affects their social lives. The proposed solution is a Smartwatch Reminder system to conspicuously provide this information to the Persons with Memory Concern when needed. This system will automatically transmit pictures and relevant information to a smartwatch worn by the Persons with Memory Concern when family or friends visit. The system will be evaluated on the target persons with memory concern population to measure engagement and improvements in social interactions and quality of life. The research team is highly experienced with the Persons with Memory Concern population and includes software engineers, a human factors expert, and experimental study experts.
Millions of Americans have dementia, the loss of mental functions, e.g., thinking, memory, and reasoning, which interferes with their daily functioning. While some cases of dementia are caused by medical conditions that can be treated, most cannot be reversed. Hence, the focus switches from treatment to palliative care, i.e., developing a plan to make life easier and more comfortable for individuals with dementia and their caregivers. The proposed project will develop an important tool to improve the quality of life for persons with dementia.
