Teens develop, win prize for dementia app

There has been so much bad news lately that I wanted to spotlight a story about what the younger generation is doing to support dementia research. A group of teen girls in Ireland used the pandemic lockdown for a worthwhile cause.

How about a little bit of good news?

These teen girls won an international competition for developing an app that helps patients with dementia.https://t.co/8T7VQJlh3F

— NPR (@NPR) October 9, 2020

The mentor’s mother had dementia, which helped inspire the team to create the Memory Haven app. Designed for use by both people with dementia and their caregivers, it has features designed to address three main issues: memory loss, difficulty with recognition and speech impairment. I loved how thoughtful the app is, using tools like facial recognition and music to help lift the moods of those who are feeling down.

While the teens are a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) success story, they unfortunately faced sexism and racism along the way. I hope their inspirational story will encourage youth around the world to support dementia research.

You can learn more about the app and see it in action in this BBC report.

Thanks to @BBCWorld for telling our story. https://t.co/LFASenZqlb

— Phase Innovate (@nomayo_evelyn) October 7, 2020