News
21 November 2023
Meet the judges: John O’Brien, Department of Psychiatry, Dementia Researcher at The University of Cambridge, UK
“Like most people, I have had the experience of seeing people within my own family develop dementia and so directly experienced the challenges this causes. One thing I think this teaches you is that people are all different, dementia effects everyone in a different way and although there are common problems that people with dementia often experience, solutions need to be flexible in terms of the main problems that need to be addressed, and how this is done. It isn’t a ‘one-size-fits-all’ condition and neither are solutions likely to be, they need to be flexible and individualised.”
Why are you excited to be judging Longitude Prize on Dementia?
The Longitude Prize has an illustrious history and it is both highly appropriate and timely that dementia has been selected as the topic for the new prize. Dementia is a devastating illness for patients and their families. The condition, which continues to affect increasing numbers worldwide, causes not only great burden to individuals, but also significant cost to society. There is a pressing need for further measures to support people and help them live better lives when they develop dementia.
The Longitude Prize on Dementia promises to bring real innovation with the use of digital technologies to help improve the lives of people with dementia, and their families, and it is a great privilege and honour to be part of the judging panel. I am particularly excited to see the innovative solutions that applicants propose, and how these develop over the next few years as the different stages of the prize progress.
What experiences and insights will you be bringing to the judging process?
I’m a clinical academic, so I see people with cognitive impairment and dementia in our NHS clinics, and so have first-hand experience of many of the challenges that people with dementia and their families face. I’m also an active researcher with decades of research experience investigating ways to better diagnose and manage people with the main types of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia and fronto-temporal dementia.
I’ve been a member of several grant panels, and so have experience in judging the scientific rigour of applications and their likelihood of success. I’ve also been a member of the last two NICE dementia guideline groups, so have a good understanding of the current evidence base and where there are particular evidence gaps and needs that require further efforts.
What difference do you think assistive technologies will make to people living with dementia?
Part of the excitement of the Longitude Prize on Dementia is that we currently don’t actually know the full extent to which assistive technologies can help people with dementia.
There is no doubt that they have tremendous promise, after all, technology is clearly rapidly revolutionising all of our lives in many ways, but there are particular challenges with technology’s use in people with dementia.
There are several ways people may be helped, for example through earlier and more accurate diagnosis, monitoring the disease and the effects of treatment, and making many aspects of living with dementia easier.
One of the key things we will learn during course of the prize is how much assistive technology can make up for some of the problems people with dementia experience, in terms of challenges with cognition, thinking, planning and undertaking daily activities, and how much they can promote independence and the maintenance of activities for as long as possible.
Have you seen an appetite for technology amongst people living with dementia? What do innovators need to take into consideration in designing for this audience?
We know that even very simple measures such as aids and adaptation to the home can help people maintain independence for longer and I have no doubt we will see some innovative and exciting new ideas come through the Longitude Prize on Dementia.
People living with dementia are representative of all people, they are just unfortunate enough to have developed a brain disease which causes the dementia. Therefore, their appetite for technology will vary between individuals, just like it does for all of us.
However, I know from my clinical experience that the appetite for technology is definitely there, as nearly everyone will be using technology to some extent before they develop dementia. One of the frustrations that I see in clinic when people develop dementia is that they become less able to use the technologies which they have become accustomed to in their daily lives, and so they are less able to keep in control of things.
Therefore, especially at the early or even moderate stages of dementia, there remains a high appetite in most people for use of technology. What needs to happen is for that technology to be made more accessible so that they can continue to use and benefit from it despite having problems with memory and thinking.
John O’Brien
