An Evidence-Based IT Program With Chatbot to Support Caregiving and Clinical Care for People With Dementia: The CareHeroes Development and Usability Pilot.

An Evidence-Based IT Program With Chatbot to Support Caregiving and Clinical Care for People With Dementia: The CareHeroes Development and Usability Pilot.

Publication date: Dec 23, 2024

There are numerous communication barriers between family caregivers and providers of people living with dementia, which can pose challenges to caregiving and clinical decision-making. To address these barriers, a new web and mobile-enabled app, called CareHeroes, was developed, which promotes the collection and secured sharing of clinical information between caregivers and providers. It also provides caregiver support and education. The primary study objective was to examine whether dementia caregivers would use CareHeroes as an adjunct to care and gather psychosocial data from those who used the app. This paper presents the implementation process used to integrate CareHeroes into clinical care at 2 memory clinics and preliminary outcome evaluation. Family caregivers receiving services at clinics were asked to use the app for a 12-month period to collect, track, and share clinical information with the care recipient’s provider. They also used it to assess their own mental health symptoms. Psychosocial outcomes were assessed through telephone interviews and user data were collected by the app. A total of 21 caregivers enrolled in the pilot study across the 2 memory clinics. Usage data indicated that caregivers used many of the features in the CareHeroes app, though the chatbot was the most frequently used feature. Outcome data indicated that caregivers’ depression was lower at 3-month follow-up (t11=2. 03, P=. 03). Recruitment and retention of the pilot study were impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, and therefore more testing is needed with a larger sample to determine the potential impact of CareHeroes on caregivers’ mental health. Despite this limitation, the pilot study demonstrated that integrating a new supportive app for caregivers as an adjunct to clinical dementia care is feasible. Implications for future technology intervention development, implementation planning, and testing for caregivers of people living with dementia are discussed.

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Concepts Keywords
Caregivers Aged
Chatbot Aged, 80 and over
Dementia Alzheimer disease
Month apps
Pilot artificial intelligence
Caregivers
caregivers
chatbot
conversational agent
Dementia
dementia
design
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Mobile Applications
mobile applications
Pilot Projects

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH Dementia
disease MESH communication barriers
disease IDO process
disease MESH depression
disease MESH COVID-19
disease IDO intervention
drug DRUGBANK Ademetionine
disease MESH Alzheimer disease
pathway KEGG Alzheimer disease
disease MESH anxiety
disease IDO algorithm
disease MESH Caregiver Burden
drug DRUGBANK Etoperidone
disease IDO role
disease MESH Memory Disorder
disease MESH psychological distress
disease MESH depressive disorders
disease MESH anxiety disorders
disease MESH anhedonia
drug DRUGBANK L-Valine

Original Article

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