1. David Battle
Consumer Health IT
IT Project Proposal: Final Paper
April 21, 2013

2. Introduction
The Alzheimer Disease has been distorting human minds for centuries deteriorating the
brain until nothing was left. Since discovered by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1906, studies have been
conducted trying to eradicate the brain engrossing disease but headway has not been made
quite yet. As neuroscientist work vigorously to find a cure for the disease, science has turned to
technology hoping to ease the effects it has on the human lifestyle. Dementia hasbeen
consuming the minds of our human race at an alarming rateand has recently led to new
initiatives with the goal of discovering the cause of these diseases. Obama unveiled a $100
million BRAIN Initiative on April 2 hoping to unlock the mysteries of the brain freeing the
human mind from dementia and other brain complications (Healthcare IT News, 2013).Such
complications have led to different technology based health interventions providing doctors
with a modernistic approach to increasing the quality of life for patients with this ailment.
When patients are diagnosed with the Alzheimer’s Disease it not only effects the patient
but it also effects the person who will have to help them cope with the disease, the caregiver.
Being a caregiver of a person with Alzheimer’s is a challenging task with the patients sometimes
requiring 24 hour monitoring. An Alzheimer patient has a mind that comes and goes frequently
often making it hard for them to perform daily tasks without assistance. This incites patient
dependency requiring caregivers to be there all the time adding stress to their lives as well as
the patient. After extended period of dependency it’s been observed that the caregiver’s
quality of life starts to decline resulting in them resigning from the position.
A caregiver’s endurance throughout the patient’s mental decline has to be nurtured in
order for them to be able to nurture the patient. As a young adolescent, I witnessed a caregiver
and a patient’s whole being deteriorate simultaneously as the caregiver dedicated their life to
help the patient. The caregiver and patient happened to be my grandmother and great
grandmother. When my great grandmother was diagnosed she moved in with my grandmother
and I, but after a while it became too overwhelming. The amount of sleep and personal time
that we obtained decreased drastically almost to a point of nonexistence resulting to my
grandmother being relocated to another caregiver. The most important thing that was needed
in that situation was time away from it all.
This recognition was the motivation needed to design an intervention that would
enhance the caregiver’s quality of life allowing them to sustain throughout process. The
primary objective of the intervention was to assist in relieving the caregiver’s stress, provide
them with a coping strategy, social support, and increase their overall wellbeing. The
intervention would also accommodate the patient in providing a management system to
monitor their progress.This would be done by providing a discussion board component for
social support, a health and nutrition component for the caregiver, a tracking system for the
patient’s physical location, and management system for the patient including mental exercises,
health information, etcetera. The success of this intervention would present a refreshing new
outlook to revitalize the caregiver’s soul ultimately extending their lives. Potentially it

3. wouldalso provide doctors and technologists with a new method to combat the Alzheimer’s
diseasetogether.
Literature
There have been a similar studies conducted in the past focusing on the different
challenges the caregiver’s face while caring for patient’s and ways to decrease the effects. The
information discovered in each study was considered when developing out Alzheimer
intervention. I have not found a study that relates to our intervention in every aspect but there
have been some that contained specific components that we included in our study. In an article
published by the Canadian Journal on Aging in 2009, was a study done to analyze the effects a
web-based intervention had on Chinese Canadians. The study used the internet and email
systems to help increase the level of communication between the patient, caregiver, and
medical provider. They hoped the intervention would help keep them a little more organized.
Our intervention goes a step further to help keep the everything organized by providing
calendars with alert systems, places to store patient information, and many other components.
Another study designed by A. M. Owen and colleagues focused on increasing the
cognitive functions of patients using a computerized gaming system. The patient played
different memory, reasoning, and speed tests while scientists measured the results each week.
The study was closely related to the gaming system developed for our intervention which
hoped to increase brain functions after extended use. The results of the study showed that
after weeks of practice the patient’s skills increased in each area meaning that the game
component included in our intervention could prove useful in helping the patient.
I received an article from Jenny Ma, a grad student studying Alzheimer’s disease, which
discussed different ways to assist caregivers from monitoring their mood changes to ways to
reach a state of peace and tranquility. In that article was a section which focused on increasing
the overall health of the caregiver by completing different breathing exercises to relieve stress.
Realizing the importance of helping the caregiver live the most stress-free life as possible it was
also included in our intervention. In the intervention provided by Jenny it mentioned two
breathing exercises but in my component there would be an abundance of physical and mental
exercises offered for the user.
Technology Components
Proper health and nutrition is important for any human with the goal of living a long and
prosperous life. Though this knowledge is such a common fact people often neglect to use the
knowledge to sustain a healthy life. Observations have shown that most people tend to be too
engaged in other tasks such as studying, working, and in the instance of a caregiver caring for
patients. This leads to them forgetting about the most important thing they need which is food
and exercise. The Health and Nutrition component of the intervention was tailored around the
caregiver to ensure that they eat properly and exercise daily. This section of the application

4. contains two components with one focusing on the diet of the caregiver and the other on the
mental and physical fitness of the caregiver.
The nutritional component of this application has a few features that would be very
beneficial for the caregiver and could also prove useful to any other person with a busy
schedule. When the component would first be accessed it would display the recipe of the day
selected from a database of healthy meals with short preparation and cook times. Being that
not all people eat the same food it would provide several choices for the caregiver to choose
from for that day. All the meals would take less than 30 minutes total to prep and cook. This
would be perfect for them if they had a limited amount of time to eat. The component would
also save the recipes that the caregivers found favorable allowing them to access the recipes at
their convenience. If the caregiver had more time on their hands they could search for other
recipes that interested them instead of settling for the pick of the day. It would also have a
place where they could choose healthy snacks when they were on the go. As noted before their
favorite choices would be saved for future access.
The nutritional component of this application would be primarily for the caregiver even
though the patient could also benefit from it. Often the caregiver is responsible for preparing
meals for the patient so with this in mind they could make a meal for both of them. Whether
their meal preferences were the same that day or they had something different in mind the
preparation times for the meals would be short enough for any circumstance. For example, if
the caregiver had an hour before they had to take
the patient to a doctor appointment but had not
eaten yet they could use the app to find a meal. They
would open up the app and displayed would be a
picture of a meal with a link for them to click on for
the recipe as shown in Figure 1. So if they wanted
seafood they could choose the picture of shrimp
scampi and the ingredients with directions would be
shown.
Figure 1

5. The exercise part of the component would display an exercise that caregivers could do
requiring 30 minutes of their time or less. There would be an option to choose between either
breathing or physical exercises both helping to relieve stress in their own way. The breathing
exercise part would provide the breathing exercise of the day usually being some type of pose
as shown in Figure 2. It would suggest that the caregiver find a quiet place before attempting
the pose. It would also allow them to search for different types of exercises if they had a little
time and wanted to try something else for example, yoga. The physical exercise portion would
provide the same information except there would be exercises that would assist with increasing
your heart rate for example a weight lifting regiment or running exercises.
This component focuses on increasing the physical and mental health of the caregiver
but could also be used to help the patient. The caregiver
could allow the patient to perform the exercises with
them allowing the caregiver to monitor the patient while
working out. A recent study shows that most of the
problems that caregivers experience tend to be
psychological (Marco M Blom, Judith E Bosmans,
PimCuijpers, Steve H Zarit and Anne Margriet Pot, 2013).
Proper exercise would prove the most beneficial to help
the caregiver to relieve stress. An example of when this
would help them would be if the caregiver experienced a
stressful day with the patient but still had to go home
with their kids. Before they walked into their home they
could sit in their car and perform one of the breathing
exercises. Being that not all of them require different
poses but simply a few minutes and the caregivers
undivided attention.
Getting caregivers to adopt this intervention
wouldn’t be a problem given that they are always
searching for help and new methods to make their life
easier. When my grandmother and I were dealing with
this problem there wasn’t an app or person offering ideas
to help increase the quality of our lives. There were only
family members and other outsiders offering pointless
opinions which eventually led to my great grandmother being relocated. My grandmother
would often use walking as a way to relieve stress not knowing there were other options she
could’ve used some not even requiring her to leave her home. With this component users will
be able to access quick solutions to healthier living. At one point in time we started eating fast
food a lot because there wasn’t much time for my grandmother to maintain her life, my great
grandmothers, and mine simultaneously. As we know fast food is the leading cause of most
health problems today.
Figure 2

6. In life a significant amount of time is wasted not from doing unimportant things but by
simply being indecisive; not knowing what they want when they want something. It was the
reason these components were designed in this manner a way in which we show the users
what tasks we think they should perform at that given time. If they have time to disagree with
our choices they can search for other options within the app which will have the same
resolution.
There have been other apps that resemble components from our health intervention
proving that our chosen method of approach would prove successful it used properly. For
example Balance, which is an app created by the National Alzheimer Center that allows
caregivers to communicate with other caregivers, track info about the patient, and also
provides a few other components to help the caregiver manage patients(The National
Alzheimer Center, 2013). Another app related to our intervention was one called Dinner
Spinner which helped people manage their diets by providing healthy recipes for them
whenever needed (Recipes, A., 2013). In the article received from Jenny it was mentioned that
the ability to care for someone when stressed becomes harder and only results in more stress
(Caregivers Guide Revised). These articles provide the factual support showing that our chosen
approach will prove more beneficial to the caregiver if used.
Sources
Chiu, T., Marziali, E., Colantonio, A., Carswell, A., Gruneir, M., Tang, M., &Eysenbach, G. (2009).
Internet-based caregiver support for chinesecanadians taking care of a family member with
alzheimer disease and related dementia. Canadian Journal on Aging, 28(4), 323-
36.doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0714980809990158
Marco M Blom, J. E. (2013). Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an internet intervention for family
caregivers of people with dementia: design of a randomized controlled trial.
Owen, A. M., Hampshire, A., Grahn, J. A., Stenton, R., Dajani, S., Burns, A. S., . . . Ballard, C. G.
(2010). Putting brain training to the test. Nature, 465(7299), 775-778.
doi:10.1038/nature09042; 10.1038/nature09042
Botek, A.-M.(2013). AgingCare.com. Retrieved from 12 Handy Apps for Caregivers:
www.agingcare.com/Articles/12-Handy-Apps-for-Caregivers-149392.htm
Recipes, A. (2013).All Recipes. Retrieved from Dinner Spinner:
allrecipes.com/features/applications/dinner-spinner/default.aspx
Steinberg, W. (2013, March 7). Balance. Retrieved from http://www.multivu.com/mnr/60344-hebrew-
home-at-riverdale-balance-app-manage-care-for-alzheimers-patients

7. Article from Jenny Ma: Caregivers guide revised fin to mimi recent v2 10 2 06.pdf