# Digital Transformation to Reduce Social Isolation and Improve the Engagement, Care, and Support of Individuals Living with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias

> **NIH NIH R43** · DETERMINED HEALTH INC. · 2022 · $499,952

## Abstract

Social isolation and loneliness accelerate cognitive and functional decline, increase premature mortality, and
significantly reduce quality of life in older Americans. Social isolation and loneliness are associated with $6.7
billion in additional Medicare spending annually, and are key drivers of inefficient, ineffective, and costly care.
Individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and their caregivers experience
loneliness and isolation at greater rates and solutions to increase social connectivity in these populations are
needed. However, existing interventions are often limited in reach, fail to overcome significant barriers to
scalability, and are not specifically tailored towards the effective engagement of individuals with ADRD and their
caregivers. Determined Health created the Connect CallHub (CCH) to provide an end-to-end solution for
organizations seeking to combat social isolation and improve health and well-being, with particular
emphasis in meeting the needs of individuals living with ADRD and informal caregivers of people with
ADRD. Facilitating safe, secure, meaningful, and effective engagement, the platform addresses isolation while
establishing an infrastructure to target a full range of social determinants of health (SDoH) – the factors related
to where/how people live, learn, work, and play that profoundly impact health and well-being. Driving digital
transformation across these efforts will enable effective collaboration between disparate stakeholders invested
in improving the health and well-being of vulnerable seniors while reducing healthcare costs. The overall
objectives of this Phase I SBIR project are to deploy key features that will improve the CCH platform and to
ensure the feasibility of using this updated platform with individuals with ADRD and their caregivers. Aim 1:
Feature Development: Using insights from initial beta-testing, further develop the software to increase
capabilities and features. Milestones include deploying new features such as SMS, email, and voice
communications to all users or select user groups; voice automated surveys for measurement and screening to
facilitate data collection for process improvement and clinical validation studies; and refinement of reporting and
user dashboards to track key call metrics. Aim 2: Feasibility (usability/acceptability): Conduct a pilot
assessment of the updated platform and its acceptability across the ecosystem of stakeholders and end-users.
Milestones include 1) qualitative and quantitative data collection and synthesis and 2) collaboration across the
ecosystem for an assessment of the feasibility of using the platform for reaching a population of patients with
ADRD and caregivers of people with ADRD, validating new features for broader distribution so that efficacy
studies can be performed. This will lay the groundwork for a Phase II SBIR application to scale deployment and
evaluate whether CCH is effective among these populations...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10383590
- **Project number:** 1R43AG076063-01
- **Recipient organization:** DETERMINED HEALTH INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Scott Kaiser
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $499,952
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-02-01 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10383590

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10383590, Digital Transformation to Reduce Social Isolation and Improve the Engagement, Care, and Support of Individuals Living with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (1R43AG076063-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10383590. Licensed CC0.

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