Person-centred care for dementia patients (backend system development)

Abstract

Dementia is a general term that refers to various diseases involving impairment of cognitive abilities. Its prevalence amongst the local population coupled with an aging population would cause a strain on the local healthcare system as the population in need of care increases over time, while the size of the working population able to provide care becomes smaller. This thus necessitates systems that can help automate parts of the dementia care process so as to lessen the workload placed on care providers and support staff. Person-Centred Care (PEAR) is a software system that aims to automate and digitalise various parts of the dementia care process to alleviate the strain on care providers. PEAR does this by providing a common platform for various care providers such as doctors, care takers, and even care centre supervisors to perform their daily tasks while trying to provide as much automation as possible to reduce their workload. A key component of the care process involves planning activities for patients to engage in throughout each day. This is a tedious process suitable for automation, making scheduling a prime target for adding to the PEAR system. Scheduling algorithms however can be complex and even unpredictable in some cases which would be difficult for care centre staff to understand and use. Furthermore, any components being used in a patient care setting needs to be highly available, with low down times and require minimal human intervention in cases of failure. This project thus focuses on adding an explainable and predictable scheduling component to the PEAR system while also exploring methods to improve the PEAR system’s reliability.