The Massachusetts AI and Technology Center for Connected Care in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease (MassAITC) has announced the distribution of $1.7 million to its first seven pilot projects.
The goal of the funding is to spur innovation at the intersection of AI, technology and ageing.
MassAITC, housed at the University of Massachusetts Amhers, is a collaboration between the Commonwealth’s premiere institutions of education and health—including, in addition to UMass Amherst, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brandeis University and Northeastern University.
It is led by Deepak Ganesan and Benjamin Marlin, both professors in UMass Amherst’s Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS), and Niteesh Choudhry, executive director of the Center for Healthcare Delivery Sciences and professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
More than 90 per cent of older Americans would prefer to stay in their homes as they age. However, the prevalence of chronic illness, including Alzheimer’s disease, can make the goal of successful aging at home impossible without substantial support.
MassAITC pilot projects hope to make great strides toward the goal of ageing at home through interdisciplinary research that draws on the perspectives of patients, caregivers, clinicians, behavioural scientists and other stakeholders.
These perspectives inform the work of teams whose expertise lies in wearable and contactless sensing, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The MassAITC pilot awards competition is driven by a broad mandate to leverage technology, including AI and machine learning, to address a range of challenges related to ageing and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD).
According to Professor Ganesan: “The pilots bring together an exceptional group of interdisciplinary investigators and also leverage outstanding capabilities for testing and validating these technologies and expertise across the Center, including state-of-the-art facilities and patient cohorts to facilitate validation of these technologies in real-world at-home settings.”
Professor Choudhry, adds: “We are particularly pleased that many of the awarded projects represent collaborations between the private sector and academia. The built-in engagement with a robust network of experts and resources is part of what sets the programme apart.”
The selected Year 1 pilots are as follows:
- Testing a vocal biomarker platform for remote detection and monitoring of cognitive impairment in the home environment (Sonde Health Inc.), Bradford Dickerson, Bonnie Wang (Massachusetts General Hospital)
- Developing real-world digital biomarkers from wearable sensors in Alzheimer’s disease, Jen Blankenship (VivoSense Inc.), Michael Busa (UMass Amherst)
- Vascular aging using infrasonic hemodynography embedded into everyday earbuds, Anna Barnacka (MindMics Inc.)
- Detecting frailty in home environments through non-invasive whole room body heat sensing in older adults, Amanda Paluch (UMass Amherst), Dae Hyun Kim (Hebrew SeniorLife), Rags Gupta (Butlr Technologies Inc.)
- Smartphone blood pressure monitoring for healthy aging, Edward Wang, Alison Moore (University of California San Diego)
- Sensor-guided psychopharmacology in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, Ipsit Vahia, Rachel Sava (McLean Hospital)
- Early acute illness detection in delirium and dementia, Jane Saczynski (Northeastern University), Edward Marcantonio (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center)
MassAITC is a member of the a2 Collective—a programme funded by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health that administers the annual a2 Pilot Awards for projects using AI and technology approaches to benefit older adults, including individuals with AD/ADRD, and their caregivers.