Susan Kurrle on the importance of new thinking to tackle dementia care

Meet the judges: Susan Kurrle, academic geriatrician and Curran Professor in Health Care of Older People in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, Australia.

“My mother had dementia and I was quite involved with her care over the last six years of her life. I saw the happiness and joy that learning to use an iPad made to her life early in her dementia, and she was still able to ‘swipe’ into the later stages of the disease allowing her to look at photos and videos with minimal assistance. We have come a long way with technology since then and I think the possibilities for the future are very exciting.”

Why are you excited to be judging Longitude Prize on Dementia?

I have been a geriatrician for 35 years, and dementia is a major part of my clinical work. I have been involved in Alzheimer’s Disease drug trials for 25 years – I know that we are still a long way from finding the silver bullet for dementia. So, we need to be looking at how we can manage the changes in memory, thinking, function, and behaviour that occur with dementia in ways other than medication, hands-on care and assistance. 

The Longitude Prize on Dementia is encouraging the development of novel and innovative technologies to assist people with dementia, and I am really thrilled to be part of the process, looking at how we can improve the future for people living with dementia and their families.

What experiences and insights will you be bringing to the judging process?

As a clinician, I see people with dementia in both community and hospital settings, from diagnosis, to the end of their lives, and work with them and their families to keep them as healthy, happy and independent, for as long as possible. 

Although each person with dementia is different, there are common themes to the changes that occur with dementia, and I have had experience with these changes and the effects they have on cognitive function. This knowledge and experience will help me as we review the applications.

I was also a part time carer for my mother with dementia for six years, so I understand why caring for someone you love can be such an enormous burden. Any way that we can assist with some of that burden will be a huge plus for carers, and hopefully improve their quality of life, as well as that of the person they are caring for. I will bring that personal level of understanding, as well as my professional understanding, to the judging process.

What difference do you think assistive technologies will make to people living with dementia?

Assistive technologies are just one part of management of dementia, but they have the potential to make a major difference to people with dementia if they can address the changes that occur, and assist in mitigating some of the effects on function and on quality of life. 

Technology has come a long way over the past 20 years, and our knowledge and abilities in this area are increasing exponentially. By bringing teams of scientists, engineers and health professionals together with people with dementia and their carers, there is a wonderful opportunity to see the emergence of innovative technologies and left-field solutions to address the changes that occur with dementia.

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?

If a person with dementia is familiar with computers and mobile phones and other devices as part of their life, they are likely to be comfortable with technology. For those people who have not had ready access to technology, it will be important to keep assistive devices simple to use and relatively easy to understand.

Innovators need to remember that dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, and that technology needs to be able to adapt to the increasing loss of function that occurs. People with moderate dementia will have difficulty learning new ways of doing things, so assistive technology devices will need to become increasingly simple, rather than more complex, as the disease progresses.