The UCLA Division of Geriatrics’ Dementia Care software system has won second place in the National Institute on Aging’s Eureka Prize competition.
The $100,000 prize goes to the team headed by Dr. David Reuben, chief of the geriatrics division.
“This prize recognizes a terrific team for the pioneering work to develop software that improves the care of persons with Alzheimer’s disease by facilitating documentation, communication, and quality,” Reuben said “The prize will support further development and dissemination of the software.”
The Dementia Care software system, developed with High5LA, is designed to fill the gap in coordination of care for both persons with dementia and their caregivers. This is not possible with the leading electronic health records, which cannot coordinate between health systems and the community-based organizations that are crucial to the care of patient and caregiver alike.
The system is designed to easily integrate into electronic health records. It allows for scheduling, case management, communications with community-based organizations, importing and storage of outcomes, and generations of reports. Currently, it supports the UCLA Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program. It has also been adopted by five other health systems around the country and several others are planning to follow suit.
The Eureka Prize competition is part of the National Institutes on Aging’s Improving Care for People with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Using Technology Challenge, and is intended to encourage development of technologies to improve coordination and care for people with dementia.
