Who Cares for Caregivers?

AI Technology Rises to the Task

By: Dr. Chitra Dorai

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic of this century has accelerated the push to a profound shift in consumers attitude towards health care. Deloitte Study on the “Future of Health” in 2020 calls out a change of consumer focus from “health care” to “health” [https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/life-sciences-and-health-care/articles/future-of-health.html]. The study attributes this important shift to increased consumer engagement, availability of interoperable, open and secure platforms and higher connectivity between data generated and data maintained by various actors in the healthcare ecosystem.

Foreshadowing the onset of this trend, Amicus Brain Innovations began its work two years ago with a focus on The number of people living the health and wellbeing of caregivers of people living with Alzheimer’s disease is neurodegenerative disorders. Amicus Brain is a digital health technology startup devoted to the mission of transforming the task of caregiving and elevating dementia care expected to reach nearly 13 million by 2050. for the greying globe. Founded by an AI Scientist with over 30 years of experience in research and development of industry innovations, Amicus Brain's purpose is to democratize access to Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology solutions that help increase caregivers' wellness and enable people living with dementia to remain living in the community longer.

Why is Dementia Caregiving So Hard?

According to the Alzheimer's Association's 2021 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report [https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures. of industry innovations, Amicus Brain’s purpose is to de- pdf], more than 6 million Americans who are 65 years democratize access to Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease today. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. Dementia refers to a set of symptoms indicating cognitive decline such as memory loss, challenges with reasoning and thinking which affect a person's ability to perform everyday activities. Almost two-thirds of American's with Alzheimer's disease are women. The number of people living with Alzheimer's disease is expected to reach nearly 13 million by 2050.

Source: Alzheimer’s Association’s 2021 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures Report.

Who are the caregivers of the rising population of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia? More than 11 million Americans as family members and friends of people living with dementia are estimated to provide unpaid care. In 2020, the extent of the unpaid care is projected to be 15+ billion care hours and the economic value of this time is estimated to be nearly $257 billion [https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures.pdf]. About two-thirds of caregivers are women and over one-third of dementia caregivers are daughters. Approximately 10% of caregivers are spouses of people living with the dementia. About 60% of caregivers are employed.

Patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease live 4-8years on the average, while some live even longer, signaling slow disease progression. To the family, this means extended, costly, and stressful caregiving period.

What’s the caregiving burden like? It is physically tiring with increasing demand of caregiver’s time as disease progresses, emotionally draining as the person living with dementia goes through personality changes and the caring gets tough, and financially depleting with out of pocket costs, reduced hours of work and lost income. As the disease progresses, caregivers burn out with continued stress leading to suboptimal decisions. There is a ripple effect of the burden with escalating employer costs, health insurance costs and workplace impact.

This is an enormous issue globally as the aging population grows in many countries. Caregiving, as the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls it [https://www.cdc.gov/aging/caregiving/caregiver-brief. html], is a public health issue. The federal government of the United States of America has recognized the scale and severity of the issue and set up a alzheimers.gov website [https://www.alzheimers.gov/] in March 2021 as a federal government portal for dementia information and resources. At Amicus Brain, caregivers have come to occupy the central focus of our work towards building technology solutions that provide meaningful support to caregivers to tackle the tasks of caregiving and decrease their burden.

The Solution

Amicus Brain’s AI-embedded platform and services meet the informational, educational, and community resources needs of dementia caregivers and provide psychosocial support across dementia progression. This technology is HIPAA and FHIR compliant, making it easy to interoperate with clinical systems and electronic medical records. The personalized services make it easier and save time to acquire resources needed, increase patient adherence to care plans and get training at the time of need. The assistive services are easily accessible wherever and whenever needed on smartphones and tablets. Our technology is in user trials now. Interested caregivers are welcome to participate in community pilots (contact info@amicusbrain.com). Caregiver engagement and feedback will accelerate the rollout of scalable, cost-effective tools that significantly reduce caregiver burden and elevate the standard of care for people living with neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr.Chitra Dorai

Founder & CEO of Amicus Brain Innovations, Inc.