On 25-26 November, the Prevention of Dementia using Mobile phone Applications (PRODEMOS) project held its General Assembly meeting in Cambridge (UK). The meeting commenced with Carol Brayne welcoming almost 30 delegates. Edo Richard introduced the meeting and gave an overview of the project. The aim of this project is to make an evidence-based dementia prevention strategy using mobile Health (mHealth), accessible to those at increased risk of dementia, who are usually not reached by preventive medicine. Older people at increased risk of dementia in China and a vulnerable population with low socio-economic status in UK will be randomised to join the PRODEMOS trial. Edo Richard reiterated that the PRODEMOS platform will be built upon the evidence-based HATICE internet platform developed in the FP-7 funded HATICE project.
This platform helps people to improve their risk factors for cardiovascular disease and dementia, such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, unhealthy diet, smoking and physical inactivity using an interactive self-management strategy. Edo Richard also announced that the HATICE results have been published in the journal Lancet Digital Health in November 2019. Linda Barnes then presented the dissemination work and highlighted that the PRODEMOS consortium has already done impressive dissemination activities. After that, Nicola Coley gave an update on the systematic reviews conducted within WP2 (Strategies for dementia prevention) including the latest results. This was quickly followed up by an overview of the qualitative research and interviews conducted across UK, Netherlands and China. Main findings and most important implications for the platform were discussed. The next session was then dedicated to the mHealth platform with a demonstration of the platform, which is ready for the pilot study to be started in November 2019 in UK and January 2020 in China. First experiences and implications were shared. The day was brought to a close by Anders Wimo and Ron Handels who reported on the health economic aspects including the cost-effectiveness analysis.
The second day of the meeting was dedicated to the preparation of the trial. All necessary approvals for the pilot and the trial have been received. A very fruitful session took place on the trial practicalities including the recruitment strategies, procedures, measurement devices, data collection and trainings. Jean Georges and Cindy Birck attended the general assembly meeting on behalf of Alzheimer Europe (AE). AE is partner in the project and is involved in the coordination and management, crossing cultural barriers and dissemination and communication work packages of this project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 779238 and the National Key R&D Programme of China (2017YFE0118800). https://www.prodemos-project.eu/