Dementia Carer Monitor | Supporting Home Care
The Dementia Monitor was a series of proof of concept product components I worked on as part of a wider project to add care services to an existing prescription branded medication for Dementia. The service involved a medication coupled with a carer monitoring device. The product was targeted at patients with dementia who were living at home and being cared for by remote or live-in carers. Shown here are two components of the service; the smart watch and the carer portal.
My Role | Principal UX Designer
The project was a rapid collaborative development effort between a leading Pharmaceutical Company, Cogent Health Care, Frog Design, GFK, PA Consulting and Atlantis Healthcare. As part of my role as Principal UX Designer in Cogent Health Care I worked on the over all service design as well as partnering with the Frog and Atlantis Healthcare development teams to ensure the product met the needs of people living with dementia and their carers.
Smart Watch | Passive Monitoring Device
A critical concern for people living with dementia and their carers was the challenge of wandering. Wandering is a symptom of dementia, in the mid-stages, where a person can begin to lose the ability to way find and safely navigate even familiar routes outside their home. This challenge can have devastating effects on peoples ability to continue to live safely at home and their carers ability to manage care whilst balancing other necessities such as working or being able to leave the house for messages or other activities. Wandering can often result in home care failing and the person going into a professional care facility.
The watch contained a GPS tracker, a help button (incase the person with dementia got into distress) and a strap which could be swapped out for one that required help to remove (meaning it was difficult to take off and leave behind). The strap, a challenging feature, was on balance, deemed necessary by the people with dementia and their carers we consulted. At a certain stage of progression, people were more concerned about the risks of wandering than the loss of autonomy for the person with dementia who would not be able to independently remove the watch.
Carer Portal | Remote Monitoring & Safety
Data from the Smart Watch was regularly updated into the cloud and viewable remotely through a Carer Portal. This portal allowed Carers to monitor their loved one remotely and find them in instances when they left the home and became lost. In addition to the location tracking service the portal also contained features to help manage day to day care such as medication adherence monitoring, activity and rest monitoring, event planning and downloadable clinical reports.
Product Efficacy | Proof of Concept
Although the design for the proof of concept was effective and well received, ultimately the healthcare economics did not look attractive enough to move the product into a commercialisation phase.