Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

2015

Faculty Sponsor

Sarah Toevs

Abstract

A smartphone telehealth application was evaluated for ease of use with caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD). Sample size included two caregivers: one caregiver of a patient with diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, and one caregiver of a patient with moderate dementia. Informed consent was obtained from the caregivers and individuals being videotaped and a two week evaluation was conducted. The caregivers were instructed on the use of the smartphone application and provided with two scenarios for video capture. The first scenario was the administration of a Mini-Cog assessment. This assessment includes drawing a clock according to specific instructions, a paper copy of the clock was obtained at the conclusion of the evaluation period and provided to the clinician for review. The second scenario required recording targeted behaviors that the caregiver felt would be clinically significant to diagnosis, or that the caregiver would use to seek assistance in intervention if the smartphone application were being used to communicate with a social worker or health care practitioner. The videos were uploaded using a HIPAA compliant server to a clinician interface for review. At the end of the evaluation period, the caregivers completed an exit survey about their experience. The video recordings were then reviewed by the clinician for quality and diagnostic applicability. A survey was then completed by the clinician. Findings indicated that the Mini-Cog scenarios were completed exactly as instructed, however the video recordings themselves were not sufficient to determine presence or absence of ADRD. The targeted behaviors scenario was only completed by one of the two caregivers in the study, and was not found to be sufficient to determine presence or absence of ADRD. The ease of use results were difficult to separate from the smartphone device versus the telehealth application and indicated that the technology overall was a challenge to utilize to record the video data requested. This study was approved by Boise State University Social & Behavioral Institutional Review Board, IRB #193-SB14-116.

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