Introducing CHRIS: Empowering Patients and Clinicians in a New Digital Era in Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care
In recent years, dementia has emerged as a growing healthcare crisis, impacting millions of individuals and their families worldwide. As the prevalence of neurocognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease continues to rise, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions to improve dementia screening, care management, and research. At the forefront of this battle, the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus and CSAND Lab is proud to introduce a revolutionary initiative called the Cognitive Health Review Information System (CHRIS). This digital platform aims to transform dementia care by empowering patients and clinicians and fostering a collaborative community to advance brain aging research.
A New Era of Care: CHRIS is not just another app or website; it is an innovative, multi-dimensional, powerful tool that bridges the gap between patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. With the integration of well-established Patient Centered Outcome Measures (PCOMs), CHRIS offers personalized, evidence-based recommendations for patients in the comfort of their homes. This can guide clinicians towards a more comprehensive care plan, highlighting potential issues and prompting specific resources or next steps. These assessments can also help identify symptoms and patterns often overlooked during routine care. Moreover, CHRIS presents this information in an organized and easily understandable format, akin to a clinical note, facilitating efficient and effective communication between healthcare providers. We hope this tool will be able to empower individuals to actively participate in their care journey, fostering a sense of autonomy and control.
Stakeholder Co-Design: The key to enhanced usability, one of CHRIS’s core strengths, lies in its user-centric approach. By engaging clinicians, patients, and caregivers in the co-design process, the platform’s usability, intelligibility, and interpretability are continuously enhanced. The inclusion of Spanish PCOMs, research referral tools, patient decision aids, and AI-based interfaces further improves accessibility and user experience. The result? Increased engagement, satisfaction, and overall improved care quality.
Data-Driven Collaboration: Fostering brain aging research, CHRIS goes beyond transforming individual care journeys. With a collaborative database at its core, the platform facilitates interdisciplinary research, encouraging knowledge sharing and driving innovative brain aging research. By unlocking a wealth of data, CHRIS is positioned as a hub for researchers to explore breakthrough discoveries and novel therapeutic approaches in dementia care.
Evaluating Impact: As CHRIS continually evolves, its impact is evaluated through regular assessment and feedback cycles. These evaluations lead to iterative improvements that optimize the platform’s effectiveness in enhancing comprehensive dementia care. Caregivers and clinicians alike benefit from a tool that adapts and responds to their evolving needs.
In the face of the dementia epidemic, CHRIS represents a beacon of hope, illuminating a path towards enhanced dementia screening, care management, and research. By embracing the power of digital technologies and stakeholder engagement, CHRIS empowers patients and clinicians to navigate the complexities of dementia with confidence and compassion. As the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus and CSAND Lab lead the way in this digital revolution, the future of dementia care looks brighter than ever before. Together, we are poised to change the trajectory of dementia care and unlock a new era of compassionate and effective support for individuals living with neurocognitive disorders.
If you would like to view a demo of CHRIS, please CLICK HERE.
Written with assistance from ChatGPT-4.