Artificial intelligence supports better care for people with dementia

Over the course of their illness, people with dementia come into contact with many different professional groups in the healthcare sector. In order to guarantee adequate care, expertise from many areas must be pooled. The MINDED.RUHR project of the Chair of Nursing Science and the Chair of Didactics and Educational Research in Healthcare at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) has been tackling this challenge over the past three years.

Two questions took centre stage: how can one's own dementia-specific knowledge be continuously updated and how can the individual learning preferences of those providing care always be taken into account? The answer: digital learning content and artificial intelligence. Prof. Dr Margareta Halek, holder of the Chair of Nursing Science, emphasises the importance of this project: "It is crucial that carers and other healthcare professionals have the necessary knowledge to provide the best possible support for people with dementia at every stage of their illness."

Digital learning content serves as the basis for further learning paths

Together with healthcare professionals, the project managers have developed a total of 52 so-called "learning nuggets" - short digital learning content covering topics such as communication techniques, forms and stages of dementia or behavioural changes in patients. These nuggets are didactically customised so that users can use them as audio files, videos, with tasks or as a reference work.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering (ISST) has developed a program based on these "learning nuggets" that can create personalised learning paths using artificial intelligence. Providers can now answer various questions on a platform(https://dhar.hub.tutool.io/product/ki-lernpfad-demenz/) and thus receive a personalised learning plan.

In this way, the project not only ensures the further training of carers, but also helps to sustainably improve the quality of dementia care.

Further information: The MINDED.RUHR project (funding code 21INVI0301) was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the National Continuing Education and Training Strategy and supported by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). It was carried out under the consortium leadership of MedEcon Ruhr and in collaboration with partners such as the Alfried Krupp Hospital Essen, Datatree AG, the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering, Tutoolio, the University of Duisburg-Essen and Guten Hoffnung GmbH.