Person-centred care for dementia patients (backend system)

Abstract

Dementia is a cognitive disorder that not only impairs one’s ability to think, reason and judge, it also interferes with the person’s ability to perform everyday tasks [1]. According to Channel News Asia, an estimation of 78,000 people with the age of 60 and above are diagnosed with dementia in Singapore today. With Singapore’s aging population, the number of dementia patient is expected to exceed 100,000 by 2030 [2]. Additionally, there are also reports on the increasing number of younger patients that have been diagnosed with dementia. As the number of dementia patients continue to rise, it calls for an increase in demand for health services. Hence, a system known as PEAR has been developed to provide a centralised platform to manage the vast amount of patient’s information. The PEAR system is developed based on the principle of person-centred care, whereby high values are placed on the understanding of patient’s preferences, needs and beliefs and at the same time recognising the importance of the care partners. On top of that, the person-centred care approach also aims to establish and maintain a good relationship between patients, family members and their caregivers which in turns may help to improve the patient’s quality of life. The key objective of this project is to further enhance the PEAR system in terms of functionalities and performance. The back-end system consists of four different components, a Web Application developed using ASP.NET MVC5 Framework, Microsoft SQL Server Database, Google Firebase Console and APC hosting platform. The focus for backend development would include improving the current interface of the existing web application, creating and offering more value-added services on the web application, as well as removing any unnecessary services or objects that would slow down the system. Additionally, testing will be conducted to unearth and fix any potential errors that may degrade the user experience.