An AI-based empathic virtual companion to track changing health states in persons living with dementia.
Mentia has won a coveted Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the National Institute (NIH) to extend MentiaCompanion’s functionality so that its AI-driven personas can detect potential acute health events in older adults with cognitive decline, and alert health and care professionals before their condition escalates.
Phase 1 aims to create a compelling user experience, finessing communication styles and content to stimulate, orientate and enable people experiencing cognitive changes, codesign being at the heart of the story. A future Phase 2 will study the system’s capacity to detect changes in the user’s health state and alert clinicians for timely assistance.
Why this is important:
Aside from individual wellbeing, early intervention could shave billions off the global public health spend by helping manage the comorbidities that so often accompany a dementia diagnosis, such as COPD and diabetes. The US, alone, spends some $100 billion more on dementia-impacted patients than those over 65-years without a dementia diagnosis.
Phase 1 begins in October 2025 and will run for 12 months.
