On 10 and 11 December, after the Lunch Debate organised by Alzheimer Europe at the European Parliament, the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD) and European Dementia Carers Working Group (EDCWG) held their face-to-face meetings. On 10 December, and as part of the INTEREST project, members of the EWGPWD and the EDCWG addressed various issues related to social health, unmet needs, technology and inequality in dementia care in Europe. This session was followed by the TEF-Health project which is a tool that helps companies navigate and comply with the EU requirements and regulations on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics in healthcare. Members were asked about the need for AI and robotics in the health domain and any areas of the healthcare system in which they would like to see more AI solutions, as well as about any ethical concerns they had regarding the accreditation platforms being developed for AI-based medical devices.
On the second day, members were asked to provide feedback on an online survey that Alzheimer Europe has developed, in the context of the Gates Ventures 2 project, about participation in dementia research and factors that motivate or put people off taking part in dementia research. Two other projects were discussed during the meetings, PANEUCARE and HOMEDEM. As part of these projects, members discussed the disparities in how dementia care is managed between Western and Northern Europe compared to Central and Eastern Europe (PANEUCARE project) and provided feedback and guidance to doctoral students about their research projects which focus on codesign within the context of people’s homes (HOMEDEM project). Alzheimer Europe would like to thank all members of the EWGPWD and the EDCWG for their very active contributions during all these meetings, as well as the doctoral students from HOMEDEM and the researchers from INTEREST, PANEUCARE and TEF-Health who co-moderated the various consultations, together with AE staff.