Telerehabilitation Alzheimer's Disease Feasibility (TADF)

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Trial end date: 2022-02-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

This is a pilot RCT with equal arms: experimental arm and (wait list) control arm.

All participants will be in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease and on stable medication. They will all continue with this medication for their 6 months participation.

Experimental group will add weekly training on the experimental device, 5 days a week for 12 weeks. Training will involve therapeutic games aimed primarily at the memory cognitive domain. All participants will receive weekly calls from clinical coordinator and report on medication and overall health. Caregivers will also be enrolled so they support the trials.

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Bright Cloud International Corp
• Collaborators: National Institute on Aging (NIA); Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• Treatments: Donepezil

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 65 to 85;

• Diagnosis of early Alzheimer's (Montreal Cognitive Assessment [MoCA] score of 19-25) [Nasreddine et al 2005].

• English speakers;

• Ability to actively move UE and to flex/extend fingers;

• Stable on Aricept 10 mg daily intake or Exelon 9.5 mg patch medication

• Able to consent;

• Living in the community in Central Jersey so to facilitate researchers travel to home for system installation and/or repairs,

• Living with a caregiver willing to support trials and be present during sessions;

• Good upper extremity motor function, close to full range of movement of arms and fingers.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Those younger than 65;

• Participating in other research studies;

• Severe visual impairments or legally blind;

• Severe hearing loss or deafness;

• Uncontrolled hypertension (>190/100 mmHg);

• Severe cognitive delay (MoCA <19);

• non-English speakers;

• Those unable to provide consent;

• Unable to move arms and fingers, or with severe arthritis;

• Severe propensity to simulation sickness;

• Those who are not cooperative with the evaluations pre-study ;

• Those who cannot produce reliable scores on the neuropsychological pre-study assessment because they do not comprehend the test, or have severe speech impairment;

• Those not living with a caregiver willing to support trials, and caregiver unwilling or unable to be present during sessions;

• Those that are unwilling allow home inspections to ascertain internet conditions in the home, to determine best placement for the experimental system, to install and remove system, and to provide repairs if needed.