Jennifer Martindale-Adams, EdD, and Linda Nichols, PhD, professors in the Department of Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, are members of a team led by Xiaopeng Zhao, PhD, professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, that was recently awarded $401,090 grant from the National Institute on Aging for the development of the RISE project, “Robot-based Information and Support to Enhance Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health.”

This project aims to create RISE, an AI-powered system used through a humanoid social robot, to assist caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and related dementia and provide evidence-based caregiver training information.

Dr. Martindale-Adams and Dr. Nichols are also co-directors of the UTHSC Caregiver Center and the VA’s national Caregiver Center located at the Lt. Col. Luke Weathers, Jr. VA Medical Center.

“We have to have a human with the caregiver to do the training that we do, or else the caregiver has to try to go online – and then it may not be targeted to exactly what they need,” said Dr. Nichols. “This concept with the AI, it only pulls from validated, good information we have developed and specific to what the caregiver is interested in. It’s personalized to what the caregiver needs.”

With the multi-year grant, the project aims to provide support to the caregiving community by offering innovative solutions to some of the challenges caregivers experience. The system is equipped with tools from Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregivers Health (REACH) II, REACH Community, and REACH VA programs. The robot will provide REACH information on managing behavioral concerns and caregiver stress and coping.

“I’m excited about the future, because now people go to their doctor’s office and there’s really no way to help them, because clinicians don’t have time to work with caregivers,” Dr. Nichols said. “Sometimes caregivers need more, they need somebody to talk to, and they need somebody to give them information.”

Dr. Martindale-Adams and Dr. Nichols said they see the possibility of this system being available in clinicians’ offices, community centers, and other areas where caregivers could receive the assistance they need when there is no one available to help them.

“With this model we have a risk assessment that we’ve been using for the last 30 years in our REACH program. We’re able to use that in the robot. The caregiver will be able to answer questions so that when the risk assessment is done, there will be a list of modules that will be recommended based off the risk assessment,” said Dr. Martindale-Adams. “More individualized is how it will be available, because they will have answered questions, then the AI will be able to pull what was most important, what they answered, and what they were concerned about, and then suggest modules to review.”

“It is caregiver driven, which is what I like about everything that we do, that it is caregiver driven,” Dr. Nichols said.

“Sometimes when we get diagnoses at the doctor’s office and we’re sent on our way and handed a pamphlet, you’re overwhelmed,” Dr. Martindale-Adams said. “So, to be able to sit there by yourself, and have the robot who is very friendly, give you information, ask questions and answer your questions. I think that’s the exciting part, because it could happen at a senior center or a doctor’s office that they could be put in a room and have time to get questions answered.”

Dr. Zhao’s team also includes Wenjun Zhou, Lawson Professor of Business in the Haslam College of Business, and Sharon Bowland, associate professor in the College of Social Work at the UT Knoxville. The project has also received support from Dottie Lyvers, director of the Office on Aging at the Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee.

Dr. Martindale-Adams and Dr. Nichols said they are excited to collaborate with faculty members at UT Knoxville.