Beijing Innovation Award-winning product protects the memory of elderly people with cognitive impairment in their later years
2024-08-19
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After more than three months of fierce competition,The results of the 7th "Startup Beijing" Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition were announced recentlyCompared with previous years, a highlight of this year's competition is that a special competition for the silver economy was set up for the first time.Among the more than ten winning projects in this track, two outstanding projects coincidentally focused on dementia.
According to data from the China Association of Geriatrics and Geriatrics, there are approximately 15.07 million people aged 60 and above with cognitive impairment in my country, and this number is expected to reach 22.2 million in 2030 and 28.98 million in 2050. While promoting the project, participants also see this competition as an opportunity to popularize and convey relevant concepts to the public.Protecting the elderly’s memories in their later years is also protecting the happiness of thousands of families.
product
Smart push, challenge in the "town 50 years ago"
The flag of the "Red Star Machinery Factory" flutters in the wind, and the green train hums with steam... Putting on VR glasses, a picture of a village fifty years ago that makes the elderly feel very familiar slowly unfolds before their eyes. By gently moving the handle, you can enter many scenes such as the supply and marketing cooperative and the No. 1 Middle School. Under the guidance of the system, users need to solve problems such as "putting fruits into the basket as required" and "remembering the position of the ball in the grid within the specified time."
Each level is full of challenges. Behind the game-like experience, users are actually training their memory, thinking, attention, etc. This instrument is the Xinyitong AI brain fitness instrument equipped with an "immersive cognitive training system based on intelligent algorithms". The system won the Silver Economy Track Outstanding Project Award and was jointly developed by Chen Jianghai, founder of Beijing Ruifan Technology Co., Ltd. and his team.
Chen Jianghai, who comes from the IT industry, worked on digital medical projects before starting his own business.It has been found that there is no specific drug for cognitive impairment represented by Alzheimer's disease. However, there is a consensus in the industry that non-drug therapies such as brain training can be used to prevent and delay the course of the disease."The physical toys that can strengthen the brain currently on the market have limited playability, and although there are a lot of electronic games, there is a lack of products designed specifically for the elderly.
More importantly, cognitive function includes multiple sub-capacities. How are the abilities of the elderly different? What kind of training content is more targeted? This reflects the advantages of combining intelligent algorithms with big data analysis. For online training, the system can make a dynamic assessment of cognitive function based on each result, and push moderately difficult and customized game questions in the next training.
After many improvements, after the Spring Festival this year,The brain fitness device has been upgraded to the latest version of VR glasses with a handle, providing a true experience with less external interference. The team tracked more than 100 elderly people, and the scale showed that their cognitive functions improved after use. Some elderly people felt that their brains were clearer than before.
Care
Be in line with human nature and always give understanding and respect
Since cognitive impairment is irreversible, the main target customers of brain health devices are healthy people and patients with mild cognitive impairment, with the goal of preventing and delaying the course of the disease. When it comes to moderate and severe stages, scientific care becomes very important.
"When I was little, my mother told me that the sea is my hometown..." At 10:30 in the morning, the elderly sat in a row in the activity area of Kangyuxuan Senior Apartment. They held a special guitar-shaped instrument in their arms, plucked the strings with one hand, shook the red crank with the other, and sang nostalgic songs. The process was not smooth, and the staff had to remind them repeatedly, but it did not affect the satisfied smiles on their faces.
"The goal is to allow the elderly to live a high-quality life as much as possible, regardless of their physical or cognitive impairments," said Zhao Sijia, head of external business at Kang Yu Xuan Senior Apartments. As the first nursing home in Beijing that specializes in serving elderly people with dementia, Kang Yu Xuan introduced the Swedish concept of "palliative care" and formed the "dementia care four-leaf clover" model, which also won the Outstanding Project Award in the Silver Economy Track.
Specifically, the four "leaves" of the "four-leaf clover" include the physical environment, the human environment, professional services, and medical support. In addition to the concise expression on paper, when people are in the apartment, they can feel the understanding and respect for the elderly and the consistent adherence to human nature from the full of "unique" details.
For example, some people believe that when caring for patients with cognitive impairment, doors and elevators should be hidden to prevent the elderly from wandering around. However, in Kang Yu Xuan, except for the courtyard gate, all other doors and elevators are not covered or locked, so the elderly have full freedom of movement.
The bedroom is a completely private space without cameras or surveillance windows, which is a special case in nursing homes. Kang Yuxuan believes that even if the elderly have severe cognitive impairment, they are still independent people and should enjoy all rights, including the right to privacy.
At lunch, the reporter was surprised to find that a meal of four dishes, one soup and a staple food required six or seven small plates and bowls, all of which were exquisitely decorated and made of porcelain. "It's a lot of work to wash and it's easy to wear, but we think we can't just use stainless steel trays to deal with it." Zhao Sijia said that eating is not just a matter of nutrition, but also an expectation of life. All these are the consistent insistence of Kim Eun-kyung, the founder of the apartment, who holds a doctorate from Japan Medical University and a postdoctoral degree in medicine from Harvard University.
Reality
Children are exhausted and in trouble of home care
"What is 11 plus 3? Do you want the third card?" In the afternoon, six "players" sat at a semicircular card table and played blackjack under the guidance of employee Lao Han. These elderly people who were "betting" and calculating seemed to be just slow in their movements and a little hard of hearing. In fact, they were all sent here because their families "could not bear it anymore". Influenced by traditional concepts, the psychological pressure on children to send sick elderly people to institutions can be imagined.
When dementia strikes, apart from the patients, the feelings of the caregivers are often ignored by the outside world. A woman bought a villa and built an elevator for her sick mother, but the old lady still chased and beat her from the third floor to the first floor, and ran out barefoot in the winter; some family members were beaten and scolded by the elderly, and they were anxious and angry, and half of their bodies were numb; some family members sent the elderly to the hospital, but they drove away crying without even entering the door, and dared to visit only after a month when their emotions eased... On a red sofa in the hall, countless family members shed tears during consultations. "I took the elderly to the neurology department. The elderly was treated for dementia, and I was treated for depression next door."
When Chen Jianghai was doing research on the product, he mostly came into contact with elderly people at home. There were many similar expressions in the patient family group, saying that the elderly ran faster than themselves, and ran as soon as the door opened, and they couldn't catch up even if they chased from behind. Many children were beaten, scolded, suspected, and had no breathing space, and were on the verge of collapse every day.
Zhao Sijia explained,In an environment without professional intervention, "agitation attacks" and other situations are very common. The simplest example is that many elderly people with cognitive impairment will forget that they just had a meal. If they are asked again and again, their children will definitely lose patience and get angry."Children will unconsciously compare their current state with their parents' past. Some looks and tones will make the elderly feel stressed, triggering a series of abnormal behaviors and even attacking others."
In professional understanding, the common reason why the elderly keep asking about meals is that their lives are too empty. In Kang Yu Xuan, the elderly are asked to help with simple housework, and visual field balance training, hippocampal memory workshops, and non-drug interventions for dementia such as Boone's music therapy and blackjack games mentioned above are constantly organized to fill the gaps. The lives of the elderly are fluid and meaningful. They will not stay on "whether they have eaten" or want to "escape" outside. Such a model is obviously extremely difficult to achieve with ordinary home care.
expect
Promote early screening and don’t miss the best time for intervention
In the view of practitioners, society's understanding of dementia is still quite limited. Participating in the competition is also to further popularize and advocate valuable concepts through the promotion of projects.
"Don't 'beautify' this disease." In some TV shows, or for filming purposes, elderly people with cognitive impairment appear gentle and well-behaved, making people mistakenly believe that dementia is nothing more than a little "confusion" and that the worst that can happen is that they can be taken care of properly. It is very likely that after the elderly become ill, their family members are unable to take care of them. On the Internet, some statements "demonize" the disease, and they even want to lock the patients in a room for 24 hours. These are two extremes.
Zhao Sijia said that dementia is very complex, and different people may present different symptoms and causes. "We should not just sigh at the decline of the elderly's cognitive function, but also see the 'people' behind the disease. We encourage the elderly to live a normal life with their remaining functions, and we will help them if they really can't do it."
Considering that cognitive impairment is irreversible and there is no specific medicine to treat it, Chen Jianghai believes that what should be put on the agenda is to actively promote early screening and consciously conduct scientific brain-building exercises when the elderly feel that their brains are still good."Dementia is a disease and should not be confused with senility. Once the initial symptoms are detected, timely intervention should be carried out to delay the progression of the disease. Do not wait until the disease has progressed to the point where you do not recognize your family members before seeing a doctor, thus missing the best time for intervention."
The difficulty at present is that market education still requires a long time. Especially when the public has a blind spot in popular science about cognitive impairment and the coverage and accuracy of early screening need to be improved, it is not easy to get elderly people who still feel healthy to actively use some products. At present, the strategy adopted by the team is to put brain fitness devices in some nursing stations for community elderly people to try and experience. "Although the progress is slower than expected, we believe that in today's unstoppable aging population, paying attention to brain health must be the right direction."
