Development of support system for patients with dementia through teleconference system

摘要

Objectives: In Japan, the number of older people with dementia and depression living in rural area is increasing rapidly because of the recent growing trend of aging. Due to mismatch between the number of patients and health care professionals in those areas, it is difficult to provide psychological support locally. Then, we sought to develop a support system using teleconference system that connects them with volunteer staffs. Methods: Patients are connected with volunteer staffs through teleconference system (Skype) for 20 minutes in each session. To facilitate the conversation, we showed the video that included old photographs of the patients. To assess the emotional facial expression during the talk, we analyzed the movement of each component of face using automatic identification software. Results: Five patients with dementia participated in the study and total number of the talk was 27. Patients with mild dementia could enjoy talking but those with moderate dementia had the difficulty in keeping attention to the talk. Each item of face can be successfully detected by the software and the movement was calculated through the coordinate of each item. Conclusion: Teleconference system can be used even for patients with mild dementia without significant side effects. It is suggested that emotional state can be assessed automatically through the analysis of video during the talk. Further research should be done to reveal the relationship between automatically assessed data and psychological assessment.