VIGOROUS MIND INC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NIA

Description

ABSTRACT The fast growing older population coupled with the worsening shortage of caregivers and nurses will soon present our nation with severe societal and economic challenges Older adults often struggle to maintain quality of life and independence in the presence of chronic diseases and isolation Physical exercise and socialization have been shown to reduce chronic disease depression falls and to improve quality of life in older adults Motivation and feedback are essential to continued engagement in a wellness program but doing so through the traditional manner of in person coaching can be prohibitively expensive Vigorous Mind VM has been providing a web based platform to promote sustained engagement in older adults primarily in senior living facilities The platform provides dynamic and tailored content including reminiscence activities favorite music and video adaptive computer games and communication With the help of the Consortium on Technology for Proactive Care we will enhance the current VM system with an additional interactive physical exercise module and a health coach with automated tailored messaging and incentives for continued engagement and adherence This will optimize the VM system for home based deployment thus expanding the reach and impact of VM to potentially delay or even prevent institutionalization among older adults living independently There is a compelling need for a tool that can increase older adults engagement in physical activity and socialization to reduce chronic disease depression and falls and improve quality of life in this fast growing population The proposed integrated web based platform represents the first step in the development of environments that combine human and machine intelligence in order to care for older adults and to enhance their quality of life