Using Smartphones to Increase Independence for People with Dementia by Beverley Cook and Krishan Patel

1. Using Smartphones to
Increase Independence for
People with Dementia
Dr Beverley Cook
Krishan Patel

2. Overview
•Aims of the projects
•Motivation
•System details
•Evaluation and Future work

3. Aim of the Project
•To increase independence for
dementia patients and reduce the
need for home visits
•By:
–creating a system for carers to provide
reminders which are accessible from an
Android smartphone
–providing further functionality useful for
dementia patients and their carers

4. Motivation
•Dementia affects millions of people
worldwide [1]
•Caring for dementia patients costs
£23billion a year, expected to reach
£50billion by 2038 [2]
•Utilize common technology

5. System Architecture
Carer
Patient
View errands
Add errands
Errand
Database
Errand
completed
Monitor
errands

6. Carer Website
•Add New Errands
•Amend/Delete Errands
•Mark Errands as complete

7. Patient Application
•View Errands
•Notes
•Contacts
•Reminders
•Assistance

8. Patient Application
•View Errands –
see a list of
current and future
errands

9. Patient Application
•Notes – enter short notes within the
app
•Contacts – easy communication to a
list of contacts within the app
•Reminders – add and view a list of
private reminders not shared with
the carer.

10. Patient Application
•Assistance – ‘Panic Button’, quick
way to contact the carer or
emergency services

11. Evaluation and Future Work
•System demonstrated to Assistive
Technology Project manager at
Luton Borough Council, and a social
worker
•Identified improvements to usability
and suggested new features which
will inform future work

12. Usability improvements
•Expand user base to those with
other mental health issues
•Provide options to increase text and
button size
•Use images instead of text
•Use audio recordings for
notifications

13. Functionality
•Improve notes function with
handwriting recognition or speech
recognition
•GPS tracking, navigation and ‘geofencing’
•Falls detector

14. Conclusions
•A novel reminder system for dementia patients
has been presented.
•The system will increase the patient’s
independence, whilst reducing the time and
cost.
•The results of an initial evaluation have
confirmed the feasibility of the system
•suggestions for improvements and extra
functionality which will inform the future work
on this project.
•

15. References
[1] Alzheimer's Disease International, 2010. Dementia Statistics [online].
Available at: http://www.alz.co.uk/research/statistics [Accessed Feb/15
2013].
[2] Alzheimer's Society, 2013. The dementia guide [online].
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=
2227 [Accessed Sept/9 2013].

16. Using Smartphones to
Increase Independence for
People with Dementia
Dr Beverley Cook
Krishan Patel