Dementia is a leading cause of disability and can have significant impact on quality of life. In addition to progressive cognitive decline, people with dementia frequently experience non-cognitive (e.g. behavioural, psychological and bodily) symptoms, including agitation, anxiety, depression, delusions or pain. Palliative care is an approach that helps alleviate distress caused by such symptoms and improves the quality of life of people with a life-threatening or changing medical condition such as dementia (as well as of their loved ones). It is not limited to end-of-life care. Recent technological advances (such as the advent of artificial intelligence, AI) may present valuable assets for palliative care. The Artificial Intelligence Based Health, Optimism, Purpose, and Endurance in Palliative Care for Dementia (AI4HOPE) aims to leverage such advances to develop a novel AI-based palliative care ecosystem to support caregivers and people with dementia.
More specifically, AI4HOPE focuses on building and evaluating an innovative Advanced Care Planning Decision Support System (CPDSS), paired with virtual-reality based multisensory emotion regulation and pain management. This system should both help understand non-cognitive symptoms of dementia and form the basis for guidelines and policy recommendations. For this undertaking to be successful, the AI4HOPE project team brings together partners from different research disciplines (technical, natural and social sciences), clinical organizations, and policy and patient organizations, as well as industry. Clinical evaluation of the CPDSS will be conducted at five pilots sites, located in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia, involving 250 people with dementia.
AI4HOPE receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 101136769). Alzheimer Europe contributes to Public Involvement and communication across different work packages. AI4HOPE kicked-off in January 2024 and will run until 2028.
