# Development of a reminiscence therapy online platform with machine learning to increase engagement with people living with dementia and their care partners

> **NIH NIH R44** · LIFEBIO INC · 2020 · $1,384,248

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Almost 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or AD-related dementias, and the number
of affected individuals is rapidly growing. Symptoms include impaired cognition, resulting in difficulty in
performing daily activities and consequent functional dependence on others. The progressive nature of AD and
ADRD can result in increasing degrees of care required from professional and family caregivers. Non-
pharmacologic interventions positively influence cognition, mood, and other behavioral and psychological
symptoms of dementia, and one well-established intervention, life story work (the use of written and oral life
histories), serves as an effective technique that can elicit conversation and memories in those with AD and
ADRD. However, generating useful life story materials is a time-consuming task for caregivers. To overcome
this barrier, LifeBio Inc. is developing a reminiscence therapy platform —LifeBio MemoryTM— with a novel
machine-learning-based application that converts speech to text and generates life stories to serve as an
interactive tool to cultivate communication between people living with dementia and their family and caregivers.
The LifeBio MemoryTM platform application will elicit and store individuals’ stories, photos, and videos and
ultimately deliver personalized, point-of-care reminiscence therapy exercises for patients. In preliminary work
supporting this Direct-to-Phase II proposal, LifeBio Inc. partnered with the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging to
conduct a pilot study in nursing homes, which showed a significant decrease in depressive symptoms among
participants in LifeBio Inc.’s intervention and revealed that the majority of participants considered knowledge of
their life story to be important for caregivers, while caregivers also reported positive experiences in relation to
the impact of the intervention on caregiving. In this project we will: 1) Develop prototype enhancements of the
existing LifeBio program and conduct focus group evaluations of these prototypes with 12 existing or former
LifeBio users, 20 dementia care professionals familiar with LifeBio and 6 older adults with early-stage dementia
to help maintain person-centered practices throughout the research process; 2) Finalize the LifeBio Memory
product, which will include the development of a system to automatically record and process individuals’ life
stories. 3) Conduct a full-scale fidelity trial of the complete package with 40 care professionals and 160 dementia
care dyads across within an assisted living setting. The product of this Direct-to-Phase II proposal, LifeBio
Memory™, will be a novel, scalable, and easily implemented solution through which caregivers and healthcare
providers can offer person-centered care to people living with AD and AD-related dementias.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10079369
- **Project number:** 1R44AG069566-01
- **Recipient organization:** LIFEBIO INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Lisbeth Sanders
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $1,384,248
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10079369

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10079369, Development of a reminiscence therapy online platform with machine learning to increase engagement with people living with dementia and their care partners (1R44AG069566-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10079369. Licensed CC0.

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