Your first stop when you have something wrong with you isn’t normally a specialist. It’s your primary care doctor, the general practitioner who’s there for every strain and sprain of daily life. Where exactly do these doctors stand on the latest medical innovations? Are they going to be able to help you with the rapidly expanding field of agetech (https://longevity.technology/news/physicians-want-ai-tech-to-help-dementia-patients-live-longer/)?
The question was asked by the Longitude Prize on Dementia, a British-based award delivered by Challenge Works. Its funding comes from two organizations, the Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK. The overall value of the prize is around £4.42 million, or $5.12 million, and in 2023, it was the subject of a competition between 24 semifinalists as they tried to develop personalized assistive technologies to help people maintain independence in the early stages of dementia.
According to the representative poll carried out by the Longitude Prize on Dementia, at least 67% of GPs in the UK wish they could prescribe assistive technologies to dementia patients, but 86% believe that the current options are too focused on monitoring the condition rather than trying to support independence. At least 88% expressed a belief that being able to stay at home could help patients feel more satisfied with their lives, with 77% suggesting that this could even improve lifespan, but 83% were clear that their patients weren’t receiving enough at-home support.
This is consistent with a general trend, described by Dame Louise Robinson, GP and Professor of Primary Care and Ageing at Newcastle University, that family doctors in the UK are turning to alternatives to drug treatments with increasing frequency. This includes “interventions such as counselling and social prescribing for people living with long term conditions” in which context assistive technology can be part of a wider package of support to try to help people with dementia remain home.
Dementia is becoming increasingly common. That’s part of why the Longitude Prize on Dementia was founded. The condition may make life a lot more complicated for patients and their families, but modern technology does open up new options for managing symptoms and staying in control of life for a little bit longer. It just requires developers to think carefully about what actually makes technology accessible to older people who may have vision, mobility or cognitive problems. The response from doctors shows the appetite for these technologies is strong.
