The ICT4LIFE Project–Design and development of a new information technology platform for patients with Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

AimWith an increasingly growing population in Europe, cognitive impairment is a major social and health issue. According to the World Alzheimer Report (WHO, 2014), dementia, including Alzheimer's disease is one of the biggest global public health challenges our generation is facing. There are many efforts at European level to promote active and healthy ageing. This three-year project has the ambition to provide new services for integrated care with breakthrough research and radical innovation by employing user-friendly Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools, ultimately increasing patients’ quality-of-life and autonomy at home.MethodsICT4Life proposes an innovative platform for integrated care by the use of sensor-based analytics for human behaviour. Novel ICT services are used to determine the relation between cognitive decline, related psychopathological symptoms and the quality-of-life of the patients, and to assess how these affect patients’ and caregivers’ daily living. ICT4Life platform uses advanced sensor-based analytics; to maximize elderly empowerment and self-care abilities thanks to a properly designed and reconfigurable recommendation system that will be able to exploit user-generated data; and to improve decision-making processes in care professionals’ daily activities. All solutions are developed following a user-centred methodology and tested in real-life scenarios.ResultsThe study design and the preliminary results of the ICT4Life project are presented on the poster.ConclusionICT4Life programme develops a solution for individuals with early stage cognitive impairment that will permit doctors and caregivers to extract useful information about patients, while contributing in a user-friendly way to extending their independence.Disclosure of interestCOI: This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 690090. Tamas Tenyi and Sandor Fekete are supported by the National Brain Research Program Grant N° NAP KTIA NAP-A-II/12.