Artificial Intelligence Collaboration Aims To Improve Alzheimer’s Care 

The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing, the Perelman School of Medicine, and other departments across the university are working together to create the Penn Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratory for Healthy Aging (PennAITech).  

PennAITech will explore the use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to improve in-home care for older adults with Alzheimer’s disease. According to the research team, the collaboration will leverage extensive data and expertise in artificial intelligence, consumer informatics, and aging. 

The collaboration is being led by George Demiris, PhD, FACMI; Jason Karlawish, MD; and Jason Moore, PhD, FACMI. 

“Aging in place is a priority for most older Americans. This goal can be challenged by chronic illness including Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. We need innovative solutions that will help us detect risks, address disparities, support decision- making and improve access to care,” DemirisI said in a press release.  

“The overarching goal of our Collaboratory is to facilitate the development and dissemination of such tools to help aging Americans live safely, in optimal health, and remain socially engaged. To achieve this, we will develop and implement a national pilot project funding program for the development and evaluation of cutting-edge technology.” 

According to researchers, PennAITech aims to identify, develop, evaluate, commercialize, and disseminate innovative technology and artificial intelligence methods to support older adults with Alzheimer’s disease in their home environment.  

The program is motivated by the need for a comprehensive pipeline from technology-based monitoring of older patients in the home, to collection and processing of the monitoring data, to integrating the data with clinical data from electronic health records, to analyzing the data with AI, and finally using the AI model at point of care for decision support.  

“Penn is uniquely poised to serve as a research and innovation accelerator based on our expertise in geriatric medicine, aging, Alzheimer’s disease and biomedical informatics,” said Karlawish.  

“We aim to advance the development of effective solutions that will be used in the real world and ultimately improve the lives of older adults’ and their caregivers.” 

The focus of the PennAITech Collaboratory is to advance Alzheimer’s care management through AI technology.  

“Funded pilot projects will be supported through cores focused on administration, stakeholder engagement, technology identification and training, clinical translation and validation, networking, and ethical and policy issues. Pilot projects will be solicited from academia, industry, and health systems,” the press release stated. 

The collaboration is funded by the National Institute on Aging and is expected to total $20 million over five years.