The PersoCo project has developed an integrated mobile app with a brief assessment of memory problems and a cognitive intervention module. The app has been designed specifically for elderly people who experience subjective cognitive impairment.

Origins

We live in an ageing society, and many elderly people experience memory problems in their everyday lives. Cognitive training is only available to a very small group of people with clinically diagnosed cognitive impairment. By digitising cognitive training, we can make it available to a larger group of people in need.

Team

The project team included experts with backgrounds in psychology and software development from Philips Research, RISE, Achmea, the Technical University of Munich and the Technical University Eindhoven.

The project

The PersoCo project developed an app that provides cognitive training. Development of the app involved several steps including documents describing design of:

• questionnaires for the cognitive assessment module and strategies for the cognitive intervention module;
• a feasibility and user experience study for the two modules;
• assessment of a user’s engagement profile;
• adaptation techniques, i.e. rules to personalise feedback and motivational techniques;
• GUI&I designs for the cognitive intervention modules (including design for generic feedback on assessment; excluding design for the engagement layer);
• A pilot study to test feasibility of the methodology and intervention.
  

Impact

By digitsing cognitive training, the training can be made accessible to a larger group of people.
The app can be used by everyone who experiences problems in their everyday life that are caused by normal age-related cognitive decline.

Why this is an EIT Health project

By dealing with a common problem for older adults, the PersoCo project addressed the EIT Health goal of encouraging active ageing. The project also aligns with the EIT Health focus area of “Fostering Healthy Lives by Introducing Behavioural Change”, because it encourages training that can improve memory performance.