Plans4Care: Personalized Dementia Care On-Demand

PROJECT ABSTRACT Although >11 million family/friends are caregivers to >6 million people with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD- Related Dementias (AD/ADRD), they do not typically receive personalized education, strategies and support to manage their own wellbeing and complex dementia-related symptoms. Lack of personalized care contributes to $321 billion annually in AD/ADRD care costs. In response, our company, Plans4Care, Inc, proposes a Fast- Track SBIR (PAS-22-196) to build and test a digital platform that delivers personalized care plans to caregivers on a smartphone, tablet or computer. To generate a personalized care plan, caregivers select a care challenge (from >50) they seek to address, and respond to brief, easy-to-answer questions (assessment). A novel clinical algorithm, developed by Plans4Care, maps the challenge and assessment results to the company’s database of >1,000 evidence-based strategies. A resultant personalized care plan contains education about the care challenge and specific strategies modifying the environment, communications, tasks, and/or activities. Caregivers also have access to trained dementia specialists (care advisors) for one-on-one tele-support as needed. Phase I will develop and evaluate a prototype. Phase I specific aims include: Aim 1: Develop a clickable prototype with clinical algorithms that map 5 common care challenges to brief assessments and evidence-based strategies to generate tailored care plans; and Aim 2: Determine feasibility (able to use platform to identify challenge/generate care plan), acceptability (appeal, appropriateness), and usability (able to navigate), using focus group and survey methodologies involving validated measures with 25 diverse caregivers (racially, ethnically, age, relationship, geography). At the conclusion of Phase I, quantitative milestones (go-no go) to transition to Phase II are: 1) 25 caregivers enrolled; 2) 75% complete assigned Plans4Care task: onboard, identify care challenge, generate care plan (feasibility); 3) 75% rate Plans4Care acceptable; and 4) 75% rate navigation easy-to-use (usability). During Phase II, we will ascertain if embedding Plans4Care into large geriatric primary care practices (part of accountable care organizations) results in improved caregiver wellbeing and reduced acute care utilization by people with AD/ADRD, and a commercially viable product. Phase II specific aims include: Aim 3: Incorporate Phase I feasibility feedback to complete the build out of the platform to address all 50+ care challenges, and develop our solution into a commercial product; and Aim 4: Conduct a two-group randomized controlled trial (n=160) to evaluate if Plans4Care improves diverse caregivers’ wellbeing and reduces acute care utilization of people with dementia. This aim will formally provide evidence for the platform and its implementation in primary care/ACOs. Our company was competitively selected to participate in the NIA Healthy Aging Start-Up Bootcamp. The commercialization potential of an easy-to-use tool providing personalized care that is integrated into ACOs is unique and desperately needed in the marketplace.