VRSingTogether: Digital therapeutic virtual reality tool to mitigate the effects of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Alzheimer's-Disease-Related Dementias (ADRD)

VRSingTogether：数字治疗虚拟现实工具，可减轻阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 和阿尔茨海默病相关痴呆 (ADRD) 的影响

• 批准号: 10698251
• 负责人: Richard Hoagland
• 金额: $ 45.2万
• 依托单位: RALPHVR INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-20 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10698251
• 关键词: 18 year old; Acclimatization; Address; Adult; Age; Age Years; Alzheimer' s Disease; Alzheimer' s disease related dementia; Alzheimer' s disease risk; American; Area; Behavior; Cardiac; Caregivers; Caring; Cause of Death; Cerebrum; Clinical; Cognition; Cognitive; Collaborations; Data Analytics; Dementia; Development; Disease; Elderly; Elements; Emotional; Experimental Designs; Faculty; Family member; Feedback; Focus Groups; Fostering; Geography; Gerontology; Goals; Health care facility; Individual; Intervention; Interview; Kentucky; Letters; Light; Location; Loneliness; Longevity; Marketing; Measures; Modality; Movement; Music; Music Therapy; Participant; Patients; Performance; Periodicity; Persons; Phase; Physical activity; Population; Prevalence; Preventive treatment; Process; Psyche structure; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Recommendation; Reporting; Research; Risk Reduction; Signal Transduction; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Social Distance; Social isolation; Structure; Technology; Testing; Time; Universities; age related; care costs; cognitive function; cognitive performance; cognitive rehabilitation; cost; design; digital; digital health; digital treatment; economic cost; efficacy evaluation; enhanced care; experience; health application; high risk; improved; innovation; insight; instructor; intervention cost; lifestyle factors; middle age; mild cognitive impairment; multi-component intervention; multimodality; new technology; prevent; programs; prototype; psychologic; psychosocial; risk mitigation; satisfaction; social; social engagement; statistics; success; tool; treatment guidelines; treatment strategy; usability; virtual; virtual environment; virtual reality; virtual reality headset

Project Summary One in three seniors die with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or Alzheimer’s Disease related dementias (ADRD). More than six million Americans are living with AD and by 2050 this number is projected to rise to nearly 13 million. The economic costs of AD are significant, with 355 billion in national costs for caring for people with AD and ADRD. Disconcertingly, there is also an estimated 256 billion in care provided by family members and other unpaid caregivers. These statistics illustrate the necessity for scalable strategies and interventions to delay the onset of and halt the progression of, AD and ADRD. Indeed, a 2020 report by the Lancet indicated that 40% of dementia cases could be prevented by modifying lifestyle factors; with a recommendation for individuals to maintain cognitive, physical, and social activity through midlife and beyond. Crucially, interventions should be initiated as early in the disease process as possible—in those with normal cognition or only mild cognitive impairment (MCI)—as the effects of lifestyle factors on dementia onset are cumulative. In fact, the MCI designation itself was developed to signal that a patient is at higher risk for AD/ADRD, prompting enhanced care. Importantly, existing solutions leveraging technology lack the ability to combine physical, cognitive, and social modalities together due to the inability to foster meaningful social connection and co-presence. In-person programs can foster meaningful social connections and co-presence. Unfortunately, these solutions are only accessible to those with the time, money, and geography to have access, and furthermore, these solutions cannot scale effectively. To address the significant unmet need for a multi-modal intervention to delay the onset of and halt the progression of AD and ADRD, RalphVR is developing VRSingTogether, a scalable digital therapeutic that fosters social engagement, mental activity, and physical activity with music, singing, and light physical activity through rhythmic elements in a collaborative and shared virtual space. VRSingTogether is a networked (multi-user) VR application to be offered on low-cost commercially available VR headsets. RalphVR is applying for this NIA Phase I SBIR to achieve three Specific Aims. Aim 1: Employ a focus group of experts to generate critical insights for RalphVR to develop a design document. Aim 2: Develop the VRSingTogether prototype. Aim 3: Investigate the feasibility and usability of VRSingTogether in patients with age-related MCI (≥65 years of age) and the individuals who care for them (≥18 years of age). Three long-term objectives must be met to bring VRTogether to market: 1) determine the feasibility of VRSingTogether to mitigate the effects of AD and ADRD, 2) determine VRSingTogether’s efficacy to promote light physical, cognitive, and social activity, and 3) determine the efficacy of VRSingTogether as an intervention to slow or halt the onset of AD and ADRD. Successfully completing the long-term goals and aims will result in a clinically validated scalable and low-cost intervention to mitigate the effects of AD and ADRD.

项目概要 三分之一的老年人死于阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 或阿尔茨海默病相关痴呆 (ADRD)。更多的 超过 600 万美国人患有 AD，到 2050 年，这一数字预计将增加到近 1300 万。 AD 的经济成本是巨大的，全国用于照顾 AD 患者的费用高达 3550 亿美元， ADRD。令人不安的是，家庭成员和其他人提供的护理估计还有 2560 亿美元。 无偿护理人员。这些统计数据表明，有必要采取可扩展的战略和干预措施来推迟疫情的发生。 AD 和 ADRD 的发作和停止其进展。事实上，《柳叶刀》2020 年的一份报告表明，40% 的人 痴呆症病例可以通过改变生活方式因素来预防；并建议个人 在中年及以后保持认知、身体和社交活动。至关重要的是，干预措施应 在疾病过程中尽早开始——对于那些认知正常或仅有轻度认知的人 损害（MCI）——生活方式因素对痴呆症发病的影响是累积的。事实上，MCI 该名称本身的制定是为了表明患者患有 AD/ADRD 的风险较高，从而促使加强护理。 重要的是，现有的利用技术的解决方案缺乏将身体、认知和社交结合起来的能力 由于无法培养有意义的社会联系和共同存在而将各种方式放在一起。面对面 项目可以促进有意义的社会联系和共同存在。不幸的是，这些解决方案仅 那些有时间、金钱和地理位置的人都可以访问，而且这些解决方案 无法有效扩展。解决延迟发病的多模式干预的重大未满足需求 RalphVR 正在开发 VRSingTogether，这是一种可扩展的数字 通过音乐、歌唱和其他方式促进社会参与、心理活动和身体活动的治疗 在协作和共享的虚拟空间中通过节奏元素进行轻松的身体活动。 VRSingTogether 是 将在低成本商用 VR 耳机上提供的联网（多用户）VR 应用程序。拉尔夫VR 正在申请 NIA 第一阶段 SBIR 以实现三个具体目标。目标 1：聘请专家焦点小组 为 RalphVR 生成重要见解来开发设计文档。目标 2：开发 VRSingTogether 原型。目标 3：研究 VRSingTogether 在年龄相关 MCI 患者中的可行性和可用性 （≥65 岁）和照顾他们的个人（≥18 岁）。必须实现三个长期目标 会议旨在将 VRTogether 推向市场：1) 确定 VRSingTogether 减轻 AD 影响的可行性 和 ADRD，2) 确定 VRSingTogether 促进轻度身体、认知和社交活动的功效，以及 3) 确定 VRSingTogether 作为减缓或阻止 AD 和 ADRD 发作的干预措施的功效。 成功完成长期目标和目标将产生经过临床验证的可扩展且低成本的 减轻 AD 和 ADRD 影响的干预措施。