Dementia and technology

According to the Dutch Alzheimer foundation there are currently 235.000 persons in the Netherlands  with dementia. Dementia is a disease, which develops with age. Through the longer life expectancy the numbers of dementia patients grow rapidly. The number of people with dementia will rise to half a million in 2050  [1].

The costs for people with dementia are enormous, especially when a person has to go to a nursing home. The Trimbos Institute shows that 22% from the total costs for healthcare in the Netherlands is for treatment of physical disorders. Due to the fact that 25% from these costs is for people with dementia, this  means a spending form around 1.8 milliard euro. Almost 93% is for nursing and care giving.[2]

The care for people with dementia is in the first place the domain from family caregivers, volunteers, nurses and doctors. The last couple of years technology to support care for people with dementia is strongly developing. The focus is on the usage of technology for the decrease in a care question by increasing the self-care from the dementia patient and assistance for  the family caregiver.  Concepts like assisted living, screen-to-screen care and advanced methods for alarms aren’t just for special institutes anymore, but are being used at people’s own home, small living scale houses and nursing homes. The main purpose is to prevent or recognize an alarming situation on time. Examples are UAS[3], Leo Pollakhuis[4], LifeStyleMonitoring[5] and IST-Vivago[6].

These technologies aren’t used that much in the Netherlands yet and research to the behavioral effects of these technologies or the possible financial advantages is very rare. This PhD research, started in June 2008, in cooperation between the company Focus Cura BV and the University of Twente have been focused on these aspects.

For this PhD research there have been done a quickscan to existing scientific research international and national in the field of technology for people with dementia. This quickscan is published in June 2009 in the Dutch Magazine for Gerontology and Geriatrics. [7]

In further research different projects are used to look to the implementation, uptake and impact of the technology. For uptake the aspects are related to user friendliness and usability. For impact the aspects are related to the well-being of the patient and family caregiver, the healthcare delivery and possible saving to let someone stay home for a longer period of time.  Due to the different projects there will be input for this research.

Projects from different healthcare organizations, intramural and extramural, will participate in this research, related to monitoring technology (IST Vivago Watch, AD Lifestylemonitoring), signal technology (sensor technology and acoustic safeguarding) and communication technology (PAL4 and Klessebessers).

For this research the CeHRes Roadmap from the eHealth Research Centre from the University of Twente is used, see here. 

[1] Stichting Alzheimer Nederland. Dementie, http://www.alzheimer-nederland.nl, 2012.

[2] Trimbos Instituut, Dementie : maatschappelijke kosten,http://www.trimbos.nl/ , september 2007.

[3] Vilans, Domotica voor wonen en zorg, UAS, www. domoticawonenzorg.nl, mei 2009.

[4] Nouws H, Sanders L, Heuvelink J. Domotica voor dementerenden. De eerste ervaringen in het Leo Polakhuis te Amsterdam en het Molenkwartier te Maassluis. Amersfoort: De Vijfde Dimensie, 2006.

[5] Willems C, Golsteijn-Kramer D. Lifestylemonitoring. Mogelijkheden voor innovaties in de zorg. Hoensbroek: IRv, 2006.

[6] Korhonen I., Paavilainen P., Särela A. Application of ubiquitous computing technologies for support of independent living of the elderly in real life settings. Finland: University of Tampere, 2003

[7] Nijhof N, Gemert-Pijnen J.E.W.C, van, Dohmen D, Seydel E.R. Dementie en technologie. Een studie naar de toepassingen van techniek in de zorg voor mensen met dementie en hun mantelzorgers. Tijdschrift voor Gerontologie en Geriatrie, 40, 113-132.