A Mobile Informatics Solution to Assist Caregivers in Care Coordination and Monitoring Social Engagement

Overview

This study will evaluate the Social Reminder System, a mobile informatics system designed to support persons with memory concerns and their care partners. The system is intended to aid social integration for persons with memory concerns and improve care coordination and reduce caregiver burden among caregivers. Researchers will enroll 100 persons with memory concerns and their care partners. Half of the dyads will be randomly assigned to receive the Social Reminder System technology for a 6-month period, and the other half will be randomly assigned to the usual care control group. Participants will complete baseline, 3-month, and 6-month surveys. A subset of participants who receive the technology will also be asked to complete a semi-structured interview after the 6-month survey.

The Social Reminder System has two goals. The first is to aid in the social integration of persons with memory concerns. The second is to improve care coordination and reduce caregiver burden among caregivers. Following a randomized control trial design, the study will assess the impact of the Social Reminder System on both persons with memory concerns and their care partners. The Social Reminder System app is designed to provide memory prompts to persons with memory concerns on an in-home tablet before and during social visits. Individuals who are part of a person with memory concerns' trusted circle may download a free smartphone app and save a photo of themselves, their names, and familial relationship description that are shared with the person with memory concerns' display. When trusted circle members are within a 10-meter range of the tablet, the person with memory concerns receives a notification that a visitor is in range. The notification includes a photo of the visitor, the visitor's name, and information about their relationship to the person with memory concerns. Reminders continue to appear on the tablet throughout the visit and cease once the visitor is out of range. The phase 2b technology also allows the person with memory concerns to designate a primary caregiver. For security reasons and to promote care coordination, the care partner will receive a log of visitors who opted in as trusted circle members. The log will include names, dates, and beginning and ending times of each visit. A total of 100 dyads, consisting of persons with memory concerns and their care partners, will be enrolled. Half of the dyads will be randomly assigned to the Social Reminder System intervention group and half to an attention control group. Participants will complete baseline, 3-month, and 6-month surveys. The baseline survey will be administered before exposure to the intervention or attention control. Follow-up surveys will be administered 3 months and 6 months after enrollment. The study will also include semi-structured interviews with a subset of dyads randomly assigned to receive the Social Reminder System. Interviews will take place after completion of the final 6-month follow-up survey and will focus on overall reactions to the technology, perceived barriers to engagement with the technology, and short- and long-term outcomes of engagement with the technology that may have been missed in the survey instruments.