One in three seniors die with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) or Alzheimer's Disease related dementias (ADRD). More than six million Americans are living with AD and by 2050 this number is projected to rise to nearly 13 million. The economic costs of AD are significant, with 355 billion in national costs for caring for people with AD and ADRD. Disconcertingly, there is also an estimated 256 billion in care provided by family members and other unpaid caregivers. These statistics illustrate the necessity for scalable strategies and interventions to delay the onset of and halt the progression of, AD and ADRD. Indeed, a 2020 report by the Lancet indicated that 40% of dementia cases could be prevented by modifying lifestyle factors; with a recommendation for individuals to maintain cognitive, physical, and social activity through midlife and beyond. Crucially, interventions should be initiated as early in the disease process as possible-in those with normal cognition or only mild cognitive impairment (MCI)-as the effects of lifestyle factors on dementia onset are cumulative. In fact, the MCI designation itself was developed to signal that a patient is at higher risk for AD/ADRD, prompting enhanced care. Importantly, existing solutions leveraging technology lack the ability to combine physical, cognitive, and social modalities together due to the inability to foster meaningful social connection and co-presence. In-person programs can foster meaningful social connections and co-presence. Unfortunately, these solutions are only accessible to those with the time, money, and geography to have access, and furthermore, these solutions cannot scale effectively. To address the significant unmet need for a multi-modal intervention to delay the onset of and halt the progression of AD and ADRD, RalphVR is developing VRSingTogether, a scalable digital therapeutic that fosters social engagement, mental activity, and physical activity with music, singing, and light physical activity through rhythmic elements in a collaborative and shared virtual space. VRSingTogether is a networked (multi-user) VR application to be offered on low-cost commercially available VR headsets. RalphVR is applying for this NIA Phase I SBIR to achieve three Specific Aims. Aim 1: Employ a focus group of experts to generate critical insights for RalphVR to develop a design document. Aim 2: Develop the VRSingTogether prototype. Aim 3: Investigate the feasibility and usability of VRSingTogether in patients with age-related MCI(â¥65 years of age) and the individuals who care for them (â¥18 years of age). Three long-term objectives must be met to bring VRTogether to market: 1) determine the feasibility of VRSingTogether to mitigate the effects of AD and ADRD, 2) determine VRSingTogether's efficacy to promote light physical, cognitive, and social activity, and 3) determine the efficacy of VRSingTogether as an intervention to slow or halt the onset of AD and ADRD. Successfully completing the long-term goals and aims will result in a clinically validated scalable and low-cost intervention to mitigate the effects of AD and ADRD.
Public Health Relevance Statement: Project Narrative A multi-modal digital therapeutic that fosters social engagement, mental activity, and light physical activity through singing, music therapy, and gaming, to provide a low-cost and scalable strategy to delay or halt the onset of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (ADRD). Current digital health applications are unable to foster meaningful social connection and co-presence, severely limiting their efficacy relative to in-person strategies, while in-person strategies are costly and hard to scale. This project intends to develop a cheaper, more effective, and more scalable digital therapeutic, impacting research in areas of digital health, digital therapeutics, virtual reality, virtual co-presence, and psychosocial interventions for AD and ADRD.
Project Terms: Acclimation; Acclimatization; 21+ years old; Adult Human; adulthood; Adult; ages; Age; advanced age; elders; geriatric; late life; later life; older adult; older person; senior citizen; Elderly; AD dementia; Alzheimer Type Dementia; Alzheimer disease dementia; Alzheimer sclerosis; Alzheimer syndrome; Alzheimer's; Alzheimers Dementia; Primary Senile Degenerative Dementia; primary degenerative dementia; senile dementia of the Alzheimer type; Alzheimer's Disease; Behavior; Cause of Death; Cognition; Disease; Disorder; Elements; Experimental Designs; Faculty; Feedback; Focus Groups; Geography; Goals; Health care facility; Health Facilities; Healthcare Facility; care facilities; Interview; Kentucky; Light; Photoradiation; Loneliness; lonely; Longevity; Length of Life; life span; lifespan; Marketing; middle age; mid life; mid-life; middle aged; midlife; Movement; body movement; Music; Music Therapy; Persons; Patients; Periodicity; Cyclicity; Rhythmicity; Quality of life; QOL; Questionnaires; Recommendation; Research; Signal Transduction; Cell Communication and Signaling; Cell Signaling; Intracellular Communication and Signaling; Signal Transduction Systems; Signaling; biological signal transduction; Social Distance; Physical distancing; Social isolation; statistics; Technology; Testing; Time; Universities; Measures; Care Givers; Caregivers; Family member; Caring; improved; Area; Clinical; Phase; psychological; psychologic; biogerontology; Gerontology; Physical activity; mental; Psyche structure; insight; Individual; cerebral; Cerebrum; Fostering; satisfaction; Collaborations; Letters; tool; programs; cognitive function; Location; Dementia; Amentia; psychosocial; instructor; American; experience; Performance; success; Structure; Participant; economic cost; new technology; novel technologies; Modality; Reporting; social; Emotional; cognitive rehabilitation; cognitive rehab; virtual reality; Intervention; Intervention Strategies; interventional strategy; reduce risk; reduce risks; reduce that risk; reduce the risk; reduce these risks; reduces risk; reduces the risk; reducing risk; reducing the risk; risk-reducing; Risk Reduction; preventing; prevent; Address; Age Years; Cognitive; lifestyle factors; life-style factor; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; SBIR; Small Business Innovation Research; Process; Cardiac; Development; developmental; age dependent; age related; cost; virtual; digital; designing; design; determine efficacy; efficacy analysis; efficacy assessment; efficacy determination; efficacy examination; evaluate efficacy; examine efficacy; efficacy evaluation; Population; Prevalence; innovate; innovative; innovation; 18 years of age; age 18 years; eighteen year old; eighteen years of age; 18 year old; health application; usability; Alzheimer risk factor; alzheimer risk; Alzheimer's disease risk; prototype; high risk; multi-modality; multimodality; treatment strategy; risk mitigation; multi-faceted intervention; multi-modal intervention; multicomponent intervention; multifaceted intervention; multimodal intervention; multi-component intervention; mild cognitive disorder; mild cognitive impairment; cognitive performance; Data Analytics; Preventative treatment; Preventive treatment; social involvement; social participation; social engagement; care costs; intervention cost; treatment guidelines; AD related dementia; ADRD; Alzheimer's and related dementias; Alzheimer's disease and related dementia; Alzheimer's disease and related disorders; Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia; Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder; Alzheimer's disease or related dementia; Alzheimer's disease related dementia; virtual environment; virtual reality displays; virtual reality goggles; virtual reality headset; digital therapeutics; digital therapy; digital treatment; digital health; enhanced care
