Cogknow: helping people with light dementia navigate their day

Background

Dementia frequently occurs in the elderly part of the population. At about 2% of the elderly population, this comes to around 1,900,000 people in Europe. Most people prefer to stay in their own home as long as possible. Often they need help to do so.

There are few studies where people with dementia themselves describe their needs, but those carried out indicate the most frequently identified unmet needs are in the areas of information (on treatment, care and support, appointments), memory problems, and communication and psychological distress.

A key strength of the consortium lies in the strong participative involvement of world-class medical/clinical experts with significant track records in working closely with people with dementia, to relate these needs.

Project description

The challenging aim of this three-year STREP project is to breakthrough with research that addresses the needs of those with dementia, particularly those with mild dementia in Europe. In order to achieve our aim, this means helping people navigate through their day.

This entails cognitive reinforcement and may be expressed as the social objectives of our research for the needs of people with dementia, helping people to remember, maintain social contact, perform daily life activities and enhance their feelings of safety.

The core scientific and technological objective of Cogknow is to achieve a breakthrough in the development of a successful, user-validated cognitive prosthetic device with associated services for people with mild dementia. We are addressing this core objective by focusing on scientific and technological objectives for the device, including:

• Remotely configurable reminding functionality
• Communication and interaction functionality
• Supportive technology for performing activities of daily living e.g., via voice prompts
• Anomaly detection and emergency contact.

Project partners

Telefónica I&D (lead partner), Luleå University of Technology, University of Ulster, Belfast City Hospital, Telematica Instituut, Vrije Universiteit Medical Centre, Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, Across Limits Technologies, HANDICOM Lab, GET/INT, MobiSolutions Ltd and Norbottens Läns Landsting.

Financing

The project is 50 % co-funded by the European Commission, more specifically within the thematic area ‘Information Society Technologies’ of 6th Framework Program (FP6-IST).

Project period

September 2006 – august 2009

Project manager

Dr. Halgeir Holthe, e-mail: halgeir.holthe@telemed.no, tel.: +47 957 29 763.

More information on the project

For more information please consult the project’s websites www.cogknow.tid.es and www.cogknow.eu

---