Changing Paradigms in Dementia Care: Technology-Based Solutions

Dementia and cognitive impairment remain a major unsolved neuroscience mystery around the global healthcare systems. They are often diagnosed only after the disease has progressed to an advanced stage and starts hampering the daily activities of the individuals. The diagnosis is time-consuming and a series of invasive and non-invasive medical investigations need to be conducted on the patient to arrive at a diagnosis. These examinations and cognitive tests sometimes may fail to give a definitive diagnosis and determine if the dementia is Alzheimer’s disease-related or not. Behavior changes in such aged patients include anxiety, sleep disturbances, irritability, delusions, psychosis, and many similar manifestations of cognitive impairment. Aged care workers are difficult to recruit and retain owing to the difficulties and long-term stress associated with care services for people with dementia. Moreover, diversity in culture and language also weakens the understanding and relationship between care recipients and care workers. The continuing research on artificial intelligence (AI) applications in medical diagnosis and treatment planning is revolutionizing the approach to disease management. Hence for a chronic and intangible disease like dementia, which could be physically and emotionally taxing for both the patients and their caretakers, various AI algorithms and machine learning models could prove promising in early detection, therapy, and care. This article discusses the applications of artificial intelligence and its future scope in the management of neurocognitive impairment and disability.