Dementia: Artificial Intelligence

Question

No current assessment had been made of the Florence project and its potential to support patients living with dementia. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is partnering with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Alzheimer’s Society to support technologies to enable independence for people living with dementia. We will award £6 million of NetworkPlus grants to allow the development of research and communities focused on the use and development of tools and technologies to enable people to live independently with dementia.

The NIHR is co-funding the Longitude Prize on Dementia. We will award £3.34 million to the most promising projects developing assistive technologies and tools to help people living with the early stages of dementia. The NIHR will be funding an evaluation of the developed assistive technologies and tools.

NHS England is proactively analysing the MedTech pipeline to identify and profile innovations which may support earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, with a focus on digital tools and tests that may aid detection of mild cognitive impairment, which can be an early marker of Alzheimer’s, and other forms of dementia. This includes artificial intelligence devices in development, which could enhance diagnostic and treatment pathways.