On April 23, during a meeting, broadcasted from the RVO studio, I had the opportunity to announce the winners of the World JAIN Challenge 2024 on behalf of the jury.
In the prototypes category, GG care by David Grey from the UK is the winner and in the products category the winner is Memory Lane by Rudolf Wolterbeek Muller from the Netherlands!

A great result after an extensive review process by an international expert jury and an international experience expert jury, after which all findings were weighed by Marco Blom on behalf of Alzheimer Europe, Marjolein de Vugt on behalf of INTERDEM and myself on behalf of the JAIN jury.

GG care is a virtual elderly and dementia care guide powered by Amazon Alexa's Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology. It initiates interactive reminders to support users in daily activities, including medication, meals, and social interaction. The system guides users through voice-controlled interactions without stigmatizing medical devices, providing personal support and reducing agitation. The jury considered the prototype to elaborate well on an existing wide-spread tool, it is clear in its use, usable, helpful and it seems affordable for persons with dementia.

Memory Lane is a smart photoframe that offers personalized support for people with dementia, their families, and professional caregivers. It stimulates memories, promotes safety and independence, and reduces feelings of isolation. With features like video calls and lifestyle monitoring it promotes connectivity and quality of life. The jury liked that it is a whole package of services and that everything is shown with pictures. It seems easy to use for people who are not familiar with digital solutions. The team has expertise in developing software/apps for people living with dementia, it seems to be designed with ease of use in mind and the application demonstrates an understanding of dementia. And it aligns well with the aims of JAIN.

This World JAIN Challenge was another interesting and informative journey for the participants, judges and organizers. Also thanks to the great entries from all over the world, for which a big thanks to all participants!
We hope to continue to learn from each other, collaborate with each other, and together make JAIN's mission possible: globally affordable AI-based products to advance the quality of life for people with dementia and their caregivers!

Thanks to all members of the jury: Ana Barbosa Shirley Evans Rikke Gregersen Ans Tummers-Heemels Lizzy Boots David Neal Rachael Kelley Ulla Eloniemi-Sulkava Duygu Sezgin Johan van der Leeuw Dirk Lukkien Jenny van der Steen – van Kampen Marco Blom Marjolein de Vugt Kevin Quaid Lieselotte Klotz Angela Pototschnigg Věra Ryšavá Sonata Mačiulskytė, Peter Banda, Paddy Crosbie, and Barry Northedge.

On April 9, six finalists provided a pitch about their prototype or product for the World JAIN Challenge 2024. The meeting was recorded by the healthcare organization Tante Louise.

It is the fourth JAIN challenge taking place now, and this is also the second global challenge and the other two times were national JAIN Challenge. In the current edition, it is nice to see varied entries from all parts of the world participating with their prototypes and products to improve dementia care. All entries were judged by three members of the international WJC jury and then discussed by Marco Blom, board member of Alzheimer Europe, Marjolein de Vugt, chair of INTERDEM and myself as chairman of the WJC jury. All this led to a decision on the three best prototypes and best full-fledged products. These are:

Best Prototype:

Virtual dementia care companion, David Grey, GG Care
The Empathic Coach, Roel Boumans, Radboud University
Help –Ice, Jeroen Fransen, 4People

Best Product:

Calendar Clock, Teun Kortekaas, Jelter
Memory Lane, Rudolf Wolterbeek, Roxelane
D-Time, Felix Janszen, Inpaqt

On April 23, we will know who the winners in each category will be. Many thanks to the judges!

A new Worldwide JAIN Challenge is scheduled for 2024. Entries can be made from today for prototypes and products based on Artificial Intelligence that supports the quality of life and self-reliance of people with memory problems or dementia and their caregivers, and supports professionals and caregivers in providing optimal care to their loved ones. See here for more information and registration.

The 33rd Alzheimer Europe conference took place in Helsinki in October. Great that the first plenary session of the conference (>1000 people!) was reserved for the experiences of people with dementia: powerful and moving! There were many interesting lectures and discussions and interesting reading to take home. I myself presented on the MASQUE project of the LUMC. In this project, a first minimum viable product was developed consisting of a garment with sensors that makes it possible to detect stress build-up at an early stage in people with dementia or a mental disability; people who can no longer easily indicate this themselves. Through early detection of stress, early intervention is possible to prevent escalation. Meanwhile, the follow-up project has started where this innovation will be applied and evaluated in nursing homes.
Highlights of the Alzheimer Europe conference are here visible.

It was another exciting JAIN competition! With the help of a comprehensive jury, including people with dementia and family caregivers, I had to honour to announce the winners. In the prototype category, that is ... SVRZ! Their prototype concerns a lifestyle monitoring system, which has very interesting possibilities.
With information derived from sensors, one can gain insight into e.g. refrigerator usage, movement in and out of the house, and water consumption. A dashboard has also been developed, which gives clients and caregivers insight into lifestyle characteristics and trends. This information can be supportive for clients living at home with (early) dementia, caregivers and professionals.
There has been an initial pilot on usability and feasibility. The effectiveness needs further investigation. This application is not unique because there are more suppliers of lifestyle monitoring but it is good that another supplier will be added in the Netherlands: there will be more to choose from.
Bbrain was the winner in the products category! The Bbrain is a smart calendar clock on a tablet that stands with people with dementia and can support them
People with dementia found this helpful and very concrete. Especially if no informal caregivers are present, BBrain gives you a nice overview of the agenda, appointments and time. If informal caregivers are present then the advantage is that they have conversations about nicer topics than about appointments and what time it is. It also makes it easy to video call and thus maintain good contact with loved ones. The added value was seen especially for people who are not so digitally proficient or are already a bit further along in the dementia process.