Tools for Coordination Among Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias

 描述（由申请人提供）：该项目将开发一个最先进的技术平台，以支持阿尔茨海默病（AD）和其他痴呆症（PWD）患者及其家人和朋友（FM）的心理干预。将开发一种工具，自动征求媒体，允许与护理人员沟通，并检查媒体馈送到SimpleC伴侣的质量，SimpleC伴侣是一种针对阿尔茨海默病和其他痴呆症患者的行为管理技术。主要目标是改善治疗个性化，使其可扩展，从而积极影响SimpleC护理干预的有效性。患有痴呆症的人数很多，而且还在增加。美国约有530万人，全世界约有4400万人患有痴呆症。预计到2050年，这些估计数将增加近两倍。目前，还没有治愈的方法， 社会是大的，社会是大的。痴呆症不仅是美国唯一的十大疾病，无法预防，治愈或减缓;但它也是最昂贵的慢性病之一-估计全国成本为2260亿美元（其中一半由医疗保险承担），预计到2050年将上升到1.1万亿美元，如果没有任何改变。此外，满足这一群体需求的工具很少。一般的方法是药物治疗，这是昂贵的和镇静的痴呆症患者，而不是让他们参与。心理社会干预措施，如SimpleC提供的干预措施，是药物治疗的替代方案，可解决痴呆相关症状，同时提高护理质量和生活质量。个性化是干预措施成功的一个关键因素。虽然SimpleC的高度个性化的干预措施，人性化的客户服务和先进的无线计算网络能够在大规模，具有成本效益的规模上创建和提供有意义的护理干预措施;这些干预措施仍然需要大量的人力来收集个性化的治疗内容，这些内容通常是非数字的，例如，宝丽来照片，卷轴到卷轴的音频和视频磁带，从照顾者和家庭成员谁可能是非常忙碌，强调，并可能生活在遥远的地方。拟议项目的第一个目标是减少人力需求，为护理人员提供指导，并实现更广泛的部署，从而减轻这一障碍。此外，这一项目将增加和维持受照料者的参与，这对心理社会干预至关重要。第二个目标是解决护理各方之间的沟通需求。拟议的项目解决了提供一个沟通渠道的挑战，这是尊重忙碌的时间表和所有参与的高工作量。该项目将评估该领域的技术接受程度和障碍。在第一阶段，AME证明了护理人员工具的可行性，该工具支持收集心理社会干预所需的媒体，并促进工作人员护理人员与老年痴呆症患者的家庭成员/朋友之间的沟通。在第二阶段，AME将与SimpleC合作，将此功能扩展并集成到其技术平台和产品中，并对整个平台进行市场测试。检测将在长期护理机构进行（工作人员多，住院医生更替率高） 和家庭市场（大多数痴呆症患者（PWD）居住的地方）。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project will develop a state-of-the-art technology platform to support psychosocial interventions for persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementia (PWD), and their family members and friends (FMs). A tool will be developed that automatically solicits media, allows communicating with caregivers, and checks the quality of media feeding into the SimpleC Companion, a behavior management technology for persons with Alzheimer's disease and other dementia. The main goals are to improve therapy personalization, make it scalable, thereby positively affecting the effectiveness of the SimpleC care intervention. The number of people with dementia is large and growing. Approximately 5.3 million people in the U.S. and 44 million worldwide have dementia. These estimates are expected to nearly triple by 2050. Currently, there is no cure and the cost to families, the health care system, and society is large. Not only is dementia the sole top 10 U.S. disease that cannot be prevented, cured, or slowed; but it is also one of the costliest chronic diseases- estimated national cost is $226 billion (half of which is carried by Medicare) and expected to rise to $1.1 trillion by 2050 if nothing changes. In addition, there are few tools to meet the needs of this population. The general approach is medication, which is costly and sedates people with dementia rather than engaging them. Psychosocial interventions, such as those offered by SimpleC, are alternatives to pharmacology to address dementia-related symptoms while improving both quality of care and quality of life. Personalization is one key ingredient to the success of the interventions. While SimpleC's highly personalized interventions, human customer service, and advanced wireless computing network enable the creation and delivery of meaningful care interventions on a large, cost-effective scale; these interventions still require significant manpower to gather personalized therapeutic content, which is usually non-digital, e.g., Polaroid pictures, reel-to-reel audio and video tape from caregivers and family members who are likely very busy, stressed, and may live far away. The first goal of the proposed project mitigates this barrier by reducing manpower requirements, providing guidance to caregivers, and enabling even wider spread deployment. Furthermore, this project will both increase and sustain care recipients' engagement, which is crucial to psychosocial interventions. The second goal addresses communication needs between care giving parties. The proposed project addresses the challenge of offering a channel to communicate that is respectful of busy schedules and high workloads of all involved. The project will assess technology acceptance and barriers in the field. In phase I AME demonstrated feasibility of a caregiver tool that supports the collection of media required for psychosocial interventions and facilitates communication between staff caregivers and family members/friends of older adults with dementia. In phase II AME will partner with SimpleC to expand and integrate this functionality into their technology platform and products as well as conduct an in-market test of the entire platform. Testing will occur in the long-term care facility (high staff and high resident turnover) and home market (where the majority of persons with dementia (PWD) live).