MindfulGarden, Interactive Digital Technologies for Elderly Patients with Delirium/Dementia

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MindfulGarden (MG), created by The Mindful Garden Digital Health, Inc. (TMGDHI), explores the potential for interactive technology and digital art to calm frail elderly hospitalized patients with hyper-active dementia or delirium. MG is a therapeutic device built on a custom software platform that responds to movement and sound, and uses biosensor input (heart rate, galvanic response, respiratory rate) to trigger a multi-layer interactive "garden" experience that reduces anxiety, agitation and aggression in hospitalized patients experiencing delirium/dementia. The device has completed a proof-of-concept with Fraser Health and Peace Arch Hospital and is expected to be ready for a clinical study in Fall 2017. In order to prepare for market launch, TMGHDI would like to work with the Health Design Lab at Emily Carr University on two key areas of refinement from the existing proof of concept; (1) user interface design for hospital caregivers/staff, and (2) concepts to support culturally diverse user-centered media backgrounds.The user interface (UI) design will address the need for screen-based interaction with the Mindful Garden media and its customizable features by hospital staff and care providers. Working with HDL, a framework will also be developed to help determine optimal visual media that best supports the diversity of users from broad cultural/regional backgrounds, and mockups of the media will be developed to convey the potential scope of media diversity when the product is brought to market. Expected project outcomes include a final high fidelity prototype of the user interface, final conceptualizations of background video assets and process documentation in a final report. These are key product development milestones toward commercialization of MG. This project gives Emily Carr students and Faculty an opportunity to expand our curricular work and research with leading-edge health technology industry partnerships, particularly in the area of dementia.By mimicking the restorative effects of real-world gardens, utilizing biosensors customized to each patient's level of agitation, MG strives to increase understanding in the incidence of delirium/dementia of hospitalized elderly, reduce the length of hospital stays, and reduce the risks of caregiver and patient injury. TMGDHI expects that the resulting financial and social rewards will become part of provincial and national strategies on dementia care in Canada.