# Remote Patient Monitoring of Family Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

> **NIH NIH R41** · PREPPED HEALTH, LLC · 2021 · $299,782

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Patients with Alzheimer’s disease & related dementia (ADRD) experience 400,000 avoidable hospitalizations
annually, amounting to $5.4 billion in preventable healthcare costs. In addition to financial costs, avoidable
hospitalizations increase risks for adverse outcomes, such as secondary infections, deliriums, or acute distress.
To prevent hospitalizations, clinicians rely on caregivers of patients with ADRD to report any physical, behavioral,
and emotional changes that caregivers observe. If communicated in a timely manner, many such changes can
be addressed without hospitalization, but through pharmacological interventions, home visits, or clinic visits.
Currently, communication between clinicians and family caregivers depends on the caregiver knowing when to
call, and clinicians sorting through messages of various importance to find and address worrisome changes
associated with an impending hospitalization. This strategy is insufficient, as it delays communication of
potentially significant changes in patients with ADRD to the clinician. It also relies on caregivers’ ability to
distinguish innocuous changes from those that can lead to hospitalizations. To minimize occurrence of avoidable
hospitalizations in patients with ADRD, we will develop and test the first remote patient-monitoring platform,
Digital Outpost, based on caregiver-reported information. The platform will contain two parts: the native
Caregiver App and web-based Clinician Action Dashboard. Guided by user-centered design principles and rapid
qualitative research methods, we will query 12 caregivers of patients with ADRD regarding content, look, feel,
and experience of the Caregiver App. Using input of 20 clinicians through Delphi and discrete choice
methodology, we will define the daily clinical surveys through which caregivers will report physical, behavioral,
and emotional changes in patients with ADRD. We will also define the algorithms for analyzing and displaying
caregiver-reported data in the Clinician Action Dashboard. Then, we will develop the supporting platform
prototype using Agile/Kanban-based Software Development methodology and conduct a 14-day pilot study of
Digital Outpost with ten primary caregivers of patients with moderate ADRD. Primary outcome of the pilot will be
usability, measured by the System Usability Scale, with a follow-up assessment through rapid qualitative
methods. Secondary outcome will be feasibility, measured through platform usage statistics. Upon completion,
we will be poised to update the platform to include integration of other smartphone data (e.g. walking steps), use
a machine-learning based predictive algorithm for hospitalization, and test efficacy of Digital Outpost in reducing
all-cause hospitalization through multi-site trial in a Phase II STTR application.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10253642
- **Project number:** 1R41AG072943-01
- **Recipient organization:** PREPPED HEALTH, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Jonathan Nicolla
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $299,782
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-30 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10253642

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10253642, Remote Patient Monitoring of Family Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease (1R41AG072943-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10253642. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*