On 22 April 2025, Alzheimer Europe hosted a session of its popular online Alzheimer’s Association Academy, with a focus on “Technology in dementia care: challenges and opportunities”. The Academy is a series of online capacity-building workshops bringing together representatives of national Alzheimer’s associations with members of the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD) and European Dementia Carers Working Group (EDCWG), to learn about the latest advances in dementia research, policy, care and treatment from experts in those fields.
The session on 22 April was the second Academy session of 2025 and was hosted by Dianne Gove, Director for Public Involvement and Ethics. She welcomed 36 participants, from 15 countries across Europe, to the session and then invited Lieselotte (Lilo) Klotz, Vice-Chairperson of the EWGPWD to deliver an opening statement about how technology can help improve the lives of people with dementia.
Next to speak at the Academy was Thomas Engelsma (Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands), who shared INTERDEM’s recommendations for policy, research and practice on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and assistive technologies for good social health. The third speaker was Kathy Wiles (Alzheimer Scotland, United Kingdom), whose presentation deals with “Digital technologies supporting people with dementia: from Every day to Innovation”. She shared information about Alzheimer Scotland’s online platform ADAM (About Digital and Me) which has been designed to support individuals living with dementia by connecting them with the right technology tools at the right moment.
ADAM has been co-designed with the invaluable input of members from the Scottish Dementia Working Group (SDWG) and National Dementia Carers’ Action Network (NDCAN) groups. They have been involved since its inception to ensure the platform is dementia-friendly, accessible for everyone, and features products that are tailored to the needs of both those living with dementia and their carers. She also introduced an immersive AI tool which has been co-designed with people with lived experience.
The fourth and final presentation was delivered by Stefan J. Teipel (DZNE, Germany) and covered the work Stefan and his colleague Stefanie Köhler have done around “Ethical and practical considerations related to the use of digital assistive technologies by people with dementia”. Thank you to all speakers and participants at the Academy session and a huge thank you, also, to our Gold and Silver sponsors, (Bristol Myers Squibb, Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Roche) and the European Commission’s CERV programme (which provides our Operating Grant funding) for making this session possible. The next session of the Alzheimer’s Association Academy is scheduled for 27 May.
