Intelligent Assistive Technologies for Dementia Clinical, Ethical, Social, and Regulatory Implications

The financial burden and the level of specialized care required to look after older adults with dementia has reached the point of a public health crisis. Older adults diagnosed and living with the disorder reached 35.6 million worldwide in 2010 and is expected to increase to 135.5 million in 2050, with costs soaring to $1.1 trillion. In the face of the increasing burden this disorder poses to health care systems and the management of this patient population, intelligent assistive technologies (IATs) represent a remarkable and promising strategy to meet the need of persons suffering from dementia. These technologies aim at helping individuals compensate for specific physical and cognitive deficits, and maintain a higher level of independence at home and in everyday activities. However, the rapid development and widespread implementation of these technologies are not without associated challenges at multiple levels. An international and multidisciplinary group of authors provide future-oriented and in-depth analysis of IATs. Part I delineates the current landscape of intelligent assistive technologies for dementia care and age-related disability from a global perspective, while the contributions in Part II analyze and address the major psycho-social implications linked to the development and clinical use of IATs. In the last section, essays examine the major ethical, social and regulatory issues associated with the use of IATs in dementia care. This volume provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of how IATs are reshaping dementia care.

Fabrice Jotterand is Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Bioethics at the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Medical College of Wisconsin and Senior Researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Switzerland. Bernice Elger Bernice Elger is internist and Head of the Institute for Biomedical Ethics (University of Basel) and full professor at the Center for Legal Medicine (University of Geneva) where she leads the Unit for Health Law and Humanitarian Medicine. She studied medicine and theology in Germany, France, Switzerland and the US. Tenzin Wangmo is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Switzerland. Her scholarship and research interests focus on issues including intergenerational relationship, aging and ethics, health of older prisoners, and empirical bioethics. Marcello Ienca is a research fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). His research focuses on the convergence of natural and artificial intelligence in the digital age with particular emphasis on the ethical and social implications of neurotechnology, machine intelligence, big data and digital health.