NeuViCare from Amicus Brain Innovations for Dementia Care

NeuViCare ™ from Amicus Brain Innovations for Dementia Care

Reduce Complexity. Improve Quality of Life. Save Time.

Are you a care partner for a person living with dementia interested in participating in research to improve caregiver experience and wellbeing? Amicus Brain Innovations (www.amicusbrain.com) is making their NeuViCare™ technology available to eligible caregivers, free of charge for three months as part of a research study that is underway with the School of Nursing and Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Healthcare consumption and dementia care costs are driven up by caregiver burden that is entwined with the challenging behaviors caregivers face from people living with dementia (PLWD). Caregiver burden is the multifaceted load experienced by caregivers that is related to the emotional, physical, social, and financial strain of caregiving. Caregiver burden is a prelude to multiple adverse outcomes for both caregivers and care recipients: caregivers who experience high burden report worse mental health and quality of life, provide lower quality of care, and are more likely to disengage from care. Studies have shown that increasing mastery and caregiving competence can inversely affect caregiver burden, anxiety, and depression. Studies have also shown that mastery and competence can be improved by education. Given the many barriers to accessing education that caregivers badly need while handling tough situations, we remove this barrier by providing AI-powered based education that is delivered by an AI-application called NeuViCare™ developed by Amicus Brain. This will also allow us to understand the impact of education on improving caregivers’ mastery and competence in managing common challenging behaviors in dementia, along with caregiver burden, anxiety, and depression.

Amicus Brain’s CEO, Chitra Dorai started the company in 2018 after her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. As her mother’s condition became worse, Chitra realized just how heavy a burden caregiving can be on family members. As she encountered challenges one after another as a caregiver, the stress, the burden, and the burnout really hit home. She is not alone. She is one of more than 11 million Americans who are caring for people living with dementia. With that visceral understanding of the problems faced by family care partners, both local and remote, Chitra founded Amicus Brain, and set out to build technology that could be used by anyone to make caregiving easier. The company’s NeuViCare™ apps are Artificial Intelligence (AI) based digital advisors and are built to interact with care partners in an easy conversational style in multiple languages. They provide clear, evidence based, practical advice on caring for loved ones throughout disease progression. They help care partners locate the right resources they need with trusted data and timely advice. The NeuViCare™ Community Hub is a safe online space for social support and staying connected even during the most difficult times. Easy to use NeuViCare™ apps provide immediate, reliable and time-saving advice, education and support whenever and wherever you need them, from your smartphone or tablet. Amicus Brain will make available two of its apps, the Care Advisor and the Community Hub to our study participants.

Care Advisor was developed to be a one-stop place to get high quality answers and caregiving advice at the moment of your need. Among the hardest problems that care partners face is responding to behavioral changes in their loved ones. What do you do if mom screams at night? What do you do if a spouse becomes aggressive? What do you do if your sister tries to slip out of the house and wander the neighborhood? NeuViCare™ Care Advisor is there for you 24/7 to get immediate answers and trusted advice.

Care partners also may face feelings of isolation and loneliness. NeuViCare™ Community Hub is a secure, online space for social support and also a practical resource, stocked with articles and videos addressing behavioral symptoms, personality changes and other challenges of dementia care – rich content provided and vetted by cognitive behavioral specialists. It is a safe space, built for people living with dementia and care partners facing the same difficult problems. Caregivers share insights and stories of their journeys, and dementia care specialists provide educational material in discussion boards posts. Community Hub is a way to connect with others who know exactly what you’re going through.

If you are a care partner with a smartphone or tablet and are comfortable using apps, and if you are caring for someone with mild to moderate dementia, you may be eligible to participate in this study and use the NeuViCare™ apps for free. The purpose of this research is to learn how NeuViCare™ may help caregivers get actionable advice just when they need it, gain mastery in handling challenging behaviors, and reduce their isolation and loneliness. Click on www.amicusbrain.com/digitaladvisors to learn more.

Let technology help in your care journey. It can save you time and make caregiving easier. It can help lighten your stress and improve your well-being.

To sign up to be a part of this research study click here: https://utcaregivers.org/neuvicare-study/

We’re looking forward to seeing you in the Community Hub!

Dr. Chitra Dorai

AI Scientist, Founder and CEO of Amicus Brain