Memory Buddy

Memory Buddy is a social enterprise that has the purpose of helping people who have Alzheimer's and their caregivers using technology.

Memory Buddy is a combination of four products developed to help people who have Alzheimer's and their caregivers. All the programs were made based on researches and they attend every single stage of the disease. The first one, the robot, will have functions like showing pictures, playing songs, telling stories, medicine alarm, reading books, alerting the caregiver if the patient is calling, etc. It will be controlled mostly by voice. The team wants to make the robot an “extension” (like a Google extension). The second project is an app. Its main function is a chatbot that will work with questions that the patient can answer daily, the caregiver can establish them. It is possible to create unique goals or tools.  Other tools are “memory stimulators”, like thinking games and games that improve memory. The app will also give updates with graphics and level metrics to analyze the conditions of the person and help the doctors. The two "extra" devices are carbon dioxide and water sensors giving security to the patient and caregiver, and GPS having the function to help the caregiver if the patient gets lost. 

The group developed the programs because of the huge number of people being diagnosed with the illness recently and also, because of personal experiences with the subject. Unfortunately, Alzheimer's still does not have an effective treatment or a method that can cure the disease or a “complete” proven way to avoid having it. According to the World Health Organization, more than 35 million people, nowadays, have the condition and this number is supposed to double until 2030 and triplicate until 2050, which is very alarming. Also, our project is developed to contribute to the 2030 Agenda made by United Nations, corresponding to the third goal “Good health and well-being".

Memory Buddy's target population is very diversified, as each product is made to attend a thing. However, of course, the main target population is the elderly who have Alzheimer's disease or any other kind of dementia that might compromise the same areas of the brain as Alzheimer's does. Every product is made to attend every single level of the disease and the mobile app will be free, as our team truly believes in the democratization of access to products that can help someone's health. Unfortunately, the elderly population who have the disease nowadays, do not have their needs heard and are really underserved for something that they did not choose to have. That is why Memory Buddy was made based to attend every and all unique necessities of a person who has Alzheimer's and also their caregivers or family member, as taking care of those people can be exhausting sometimes, making them not as worried as they would be, if they did not have Memory Buddy products to help them.  

To help develop a solution, as the science, unfortunately, still did not discover a cure, the group developed four products as stated before. To build the programs, first, we asked some questions to caregivers and to people that have contact with someone who has Alzheimer’s. The questions were: What are the biggest difficulties you face when taking care of people with Alzheimer's? What are the biggest difficulties that an Alzheimer's patient has? Do you believe that our project can positively help caregivers and people with Alzheimer's? Can you think of mechanisms/devices that will help these people? If yes, which one? Any suggestions for functions we can add to the devices? With the answers we got, we could unite the ideas we already had with the responses we received to build the best products in this area. Also, the group made a survey with other people in our community too, that are not necessarily caregivers or health professionals, some being related to the disease and some not, and we obtained good results that were also used to build the programs.   

Memory Buddy team already did lots of researches with caregivers, expertise in Alzheimer and also in many scientific articles, however, we still did not implement our products, but we believe it will be a success as we modeled the programs to attend the necessities of the person with Alzheimer's as well as their caregivers or family members. 

Memory Buddy has four products in total, all having lots of technology. Starting with the robot, it is projected to have A.I, as it will be controlled mostly by voice. If the team decides to really make it, in the future, as an extension, it will work as an Alexa, for example, and, of course, A.I will still be present. The app will also count on machine learning in the future, in the chatbot. The sensors will be built using Arduino and the GPS will also have A.I. All our products are made from existing technologies, but they are applied to other problems and uses. 

Memory Buddy is not yet launched, however, it is possible to make predictions based on the number of followers we have on Instagram. Currently, we have 123 followers, and, analyzing that, it is correct to state that the app, in the first launching months will have 100+ downloads, as it will be free. The robot, as it will not be free, the number of people who will own it, logically, will be smaller, we hope we will have at least 30 buyers in the launching months. About the two extra devices, the sensors and GPS, the numbers will really depend on the necessity of each person, therefore the buyers cannot be very predictable, as they will depend on many factors. The goal is to double or even triple these numbers in the next year. Please note that those are only predictions, made based on the most accurate source we have, the Instagram followers, however, those statistics can be different when the products are launched. 

Memory Buddy team is willing to attend as many people as we can. We hope that with the app being free we will be able to reach more people than we would if it was paid and that is why we made it costless for the downloaders. We also hope to really help people who have Alzheimer's by stimulating their brain while trying to make the caregiver and family member less exhausted and also happier by seeing that the products can work. That is the main goal of each program: to ease the life both of the patient and caregiver and make a positive impact in their lives. 

As Memory Buddy's products were not launched yet, the main way we are using to analyze if we are doing well and making progress is the number of followers we have on social media (Instagram). By now, we have 123 followers, which is a good indicator as even though the programs are not available we already have a nice amount of people seeing our work. Another good form of measuring it is by the 2030 Agenda by the United Nation, Memory Buddy aligns with the third goal: good health and well-being, which is also a good indicator. 

There are not many barriers for Memory Buddy, however, of course, unexpected problems might show up and if they do, our team believes they would be financial or technical. Financial because we might not obtain the revenue we want and technical because some of the technologies sometimes might fail, but if any issue comes in the team will be focused on solving it, so we can impact more lives. 

All the team members and the mentors had some experience or knew somebody who suffered from Alzheimer's or dementia, making us have a unique and special connection with the problem. Also, some of the participants of the group already had experience in solving challenges and building solutions, which for sure helped us to develop the best products we could to really help our target population. 

Memory Buddy team was sponsored by Robomind, a national educational robotics company. The enterprise is committed to helping with some costs of the robot, helping us in the developments (as a mentor), and also divulgating our project.