SCAFFOLD Digital, a Lisburn-based digital agency, is in the final stages of developing a new app to support a personalised approach to reminiscence.
The InspireD app has been commissioned by healthcare authorities in the north for use by people living with dementia and the health and social care staff who support them.
The app will be available on the NI Dementia Library (apps4dementia.orcha.co.uk) which was launched in October, and hopefully it will also feature on the NHS app store.
InspireD has been developed in partnership with Ulster University and the Health and Social Care Board as part of a wider Dementia eHealth and Data Analytics Pathfinder Programme.
It is designed to help people living with dementia and their carers to store photographs, music and film clips which can then be used to prompt conversations about past experiences and important life events.
The development of the InspireD app is a revolutionary step in the digitisation of the healthcare sector and will make Scaffold Digital a pioneer in the field.
InspireD will work by enabling people living with dementia, their carers and families, to create a digital memory book with photos, video and sound.
It boasts a guided uploading and navigation process to allow users to add and organise content as well as recording voice notes and more.
Scaffold Digital managing director Tim Proctor said: “Everyone of us is made up of a story of events and connections, and when a person is diagnosed with dementia, those memories that make up our lives are suddenly at risk of fading or even disappearing.
“With InspireD we can assist in safeguarding the occasions, people and circumstances that have shaped those living with dementia through visual and vocal triggers.
“It will effectively support a more personalised approach to reminiscence and will be a welcome new addition on the NI Dementia Apps Library.”
Scaffold Digital - which was short-listed for a Digital DNA award recently for its TakeTen Mobile App which monitors heart rate variability providing biofeedback for stress and anxiety management - said the illustrates exactly how technological disruption can truly benefit people's lives.
