QoLEAD

The project QoLEAD (Quality of Life by use of Enabling AI in Dementia), aims to bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and warm care for people with dementia. In QoLEAD, focus is put on the quality of life of people with dementia and their environment. Together with them, researchers will work on solutions for their challenges and desires in important areas of life such as social contact, safety, meaning, and personal autonomy. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be helpful in this regard, because it can learn and adapt to different people in a variety of contexts. This way, AI can gradually support people better and increase their well-being. For example, think of tools that help people with memory problems remember daily things, or a navigation aid that learns about the significant locations in the immediate environment of a person with dementia and intuitively maps them out.

An important goal of the project is to bring people from the healthcare and AI world together. We want to bridge the gap between care professionals who know everything about dementia and researchers who understand algorithms. Our intention is that together, in a process of co-creation and co-design, we will search for solutions that really work. Artificial intelligence is a means and not an end in itself – it does not necessarily always provide the only or best solution. We look at what people with dementia need, both at home and in a care environment. In addition, we take into account how care professionals work in practice and which technical innovations best fit their work.

The QoLEAD project has been funded under the highly competitive NWO/ZonMW KIC Programme “Living with dementia”.