- Citrus Suite’s ReMind Me wins first North West Digital health challenge
- The team of developers have visited China where there’s an ageing population crisis
Tommy Dunne is 62. For the past four years he’s been living with Alzheimer’s. He’s just one adult with dementia who’s been working with Liverpool technology company Citrus Suite to make ReMind Me, an app that helps him with daily activities and keeps him in touch with his family and carers.
The app has won the first North West Digital health challenge and the team has been invited to showcase how it works in China to help the country tackle its ageing population crisis.
Facilitated by Innovate Dementia, Citrus Suite worked with people living with dementia, carers clinicians, and researchers in a “living lab” to create ReMind Me which works on both iPad and Android tablets. It’s a system to aid the memory of daily routines and to promote the independence of people living with dementia. One of the most difficult elements for those with dementia, which can stop them living in their own home, is forgetting routine and how to perform simple tasks like cooking meals and making a cup of tea. Using text, audio and video the app is designed to continually update the patient, with guides for getting dressed along with customisable prompts, for example the time and date, hospital appointments to when to feed the cat or take medication. Carers and family members can also be linked to the patient through the app so they can stay in touch.
Tommy says the app is now “like my right hand” and it is the touchscreen technology that makes it easy to use. “When we first got introduced to tablets, people said people with dementia wouldn’t be able to use it because we can’t learn new things. With these tablets and touchscreen technology actually people with dementia pick it up quicker. You’re scrolling or swiping instead of having to type with a laptop. Your natural instinct is to touch the screen. It becomes almost instinctive to use and you learn through repetition”.
The app also allows Tommy to record personal memories which he can then listen back to. “It’s better than having post-its around the house because they become part of the fabric and when you have dementia you stop noticing that kind of thing. This app, there’s always something different and it catches your eye so you always notice it”.
Citrus Suite, who are part of Liverpool’s pilot eHealth cluster are just one of the technology companies in the city-region investigating technological solutions to tackle the city’s health and social care crisis. One of the aims of the app is to help people with dementia live independently for longer. “People with dementia want to live independently” says Chris Morland from Citrus Suite. “They want to live independent and healthy lives. This memory enabling technology is empowering.”
The team recently went to China to meet with academics, private companies and health workers in a trip organised by Medilink to show them the ReMind Me app. Because of the country’s ageing population, China’s social support system faces being overwhelmed by Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. Life expectancy in China is now 76 years, nearly on par with the U.S.’s 79 years. A report in 2011 from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted that from 2000 to 2050, the number of people aged 65 and older will treble. An ageing population presents greater issues in terms of illness, especially neuro-degeneration. China has nine million people with some form of dementia and more cases of Alzheimer’s than any other country.
Jill Pendleton is from Innovate Dementia, “The concept for this exciting app came from people living with dementia and carers; they told us what they wanted from an app to help them to remember to carry out daily routines and remain independent in daily living tasks at home. It has been co-designed with clinicians and people living with dementia and has the potential to make a real difference to people’s lives by enabling them to cope with the daily challenges that dementia brings. It is able to be completely personalised to give people as much help as they need in whatever way suits them best and maximises the fit between the app and the person, making it stand out from other apps available”.
The app is undergoing trials and will be available in 2015.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Liverpool city-region’s eHealth cluster is a pilot project, seeing technology firms collaborate with health and social care professionals as well as academics to help to tackle the issues facing the sector, including the growth of age-related neurological conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s against a backdrop of reduced funds. It is funded and supported by Mi and Liverpool Vision www.ehealthcluster.co.uk
Open Labs is funded by LJMU and the European Regional Development Fund. Its aim is to help businesses become more successful through innovation. The North West Digital Health Challenge was designed by Liverpool JMU’s Open Labs and So-Mo. Twelve firms from around the region pitched ideas using technology to solve health and social care issues. The challenge was developed as a key enabler of the Digital Maze programme and is part of Open Labs broader role in supporting the growth of the local economy.
The Digital Maze Challenge is a co-production between the social innovation company So-Mo and Open Labs and follows on from the highly successful North West Digital Health Challenge and the Digital Maze Unconference, held as part of the International Festival of Business in July 2014. It was supported by Liverpool Health Partners,Liverpool CCG, Mi, NWC Academic Health Science Network, Riverside Housing, the Electronics, Sensors and Photonics KTN, Liverpool Vision, Net Boss, and the Science and Innovation Network
Citrus Suite is an award-winning app development company. The maker of Wreck This App and Chopsticks – app of the year 2012 – the company based in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle has made over 50 apps receiving over 750,000 app downloads.
Innovate Dementia is a project aiming to promote innovative care for people with dementia. Aimed at boosting innovation and employment the project strengthen cooperation and helps to develop sustainable solutions to tackle the socio-economic challenges concerned with ageing and dementia www.innovatedementia.eu
For further information contact Laura Brown, laura@lauramariebrown.com