Artificial Intelligence Enabled Healthcare: Opportunities and challenges for patients with dementia

Abstract

Dementia, often used as an umbrella term, results in the decline of patient’s cognitive function and capability to such an extent that it starts to disrupt their daily life. The grave impact this disorder has results in increased isolation as well as frustration for patients. The rising interest in artificial intelligence and robotics shows positive signs of AI elevating the effects of dementia and hence empowering patients with the condition. The research area is rather new therefore little evidence exists on their feasibility and implementation in dementia care. Which is why the aim of this paper is to review ways in which AI technologies and robotics could improve dementia care as well outline challenges that inevitably exist when dealing with artificial intelligence especially when treating such a vulnerable patient subgroup. In order to answer the research question, this study employs a scoping review to map out existing data and to further identify the gap in the study area. Multiple databases were used to acquire pre-existing literature hence much of the focus was on evaluating secondary data and journals. A SWOT analysis was further conducted to get a more comprehensive perspective of the topic. This paper catalogued a total of 38 robotics and AI interventions that assisted patients with dementia and provided descriptions of each robot and AI technology. The results presented highlighted how most of the robots were designed to meet social needs of dementia patients in comparison to those enhancing motor skills, speech assistance and cognitive functions. Amongst the key challenges, cost, access and ethical implications were emphasised on.