February 24, 2010

Simple Devices to Guide Dementia Patients

A new innovative system that will help sufferers of mild dementia take care of themselves has been developed by an EU-funded team of researchers. Two simple devices, one for the home and one for a mobile that the patient can carry with them, are equipped with touch-screen technology tha

By cms admin

A new innovative system that will help sufferers of mild dementia take care of themselves has been developed by an EU-funded team of researchers.

Two simple devices, one for the home and one for a mobile that the patient can carry with them, are equipped with touch-screen technology that allows patients to easily access reminders for users to remind them about their daily routines as well as technology that can guide them to and from home.

On the in-home device, different instructions can be installed for the users to remind them about their daily routines like when to brush, to do the laundry and warm pre-prepared meals.

The mobile device has a global positioning system that guides the dementia patient home safely when they are outside their home.

The COGKNOW consortium, which comprises medical doctors, software researchers and developers from Europe, received almost €2m ($2.7m) under the ‘Information society technologies’ Thematic area of the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme for this project.

The system has already been tested in three countries and the COGKNOW partners are now working to bring it to market.

The project partners hail from Estonia, France, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK.