Co-created ICT solutions for Alzheimer's Informal Caregiving

Alzheimer Disease International estimates that 46.8 million people worldwide were living with dementia in 2015. This number will almost double every 20 years. New health and demographic changes increased the demands for new care solutions where informal caregivers playing a fundamental role. There are many ICT products and services, but user-led design and co-creation need to be much better embedded in the design process. The involvement of users in the co-production of products results in a product that is better suited to them. To be in this scenario changes are required. There is a clear need of improving the teaching and learning approaches and to stimulate entrepreneurship in the interconnected fields of ICT, health and social care; universities, enterprises and users need to work together for more user-led and efficient ICT-based Alzheimer care solutions, which is the main aim of this project. To achieve it, we will address five objectives. The first one is to map existing successful national and European level action on co-created ICT-based Alzheimer care solutions. Second, to develop practical guidance on how to implement design-enabled co-production for ICT designers and providers, users and ICT, health and social care students. Third, to plan and run pilots to test the guidance and evaluate its impact in innovation. Fourth, to develop convening spaces supporting an Alliance of relevant stakeholders involved in ICT-based Alzheimer care solutions. And last, to develop a dissemination and exploitation plan and an implementation strategy to highlight project results, to foster dialogues and mutual learning exercises with the aim to ensure the sustainability of the project. Major outputs will be the training course for health, social and ICT; the toolkit for informal carers; and the online community of practice following the development of the two other major outputs and giving support to all relevant stakeholders involved.