New digital register for dementia

With 50 million people affected worldwide, dementia is a significant challenge of our times. In Bavaria alone, there are currently around 240,000 people living with dementia. Demographic change means that an increase of up to 300,000 can be expected by the year 2030.

Tending to and caring for these people in future is a major challenge, not only for the health system, but for society in general. The Bavarian state government is meeting this challenge by implementing the inter-departmental Bavarian dementia strategy.

Patients and their relatives in focus

The research project ‘Bavarian Digital Dementia Register’, which is due to be launched in January 2019 and is being funded within the framework of fundamental and healthcare research as part of the Bavarian dementia strategy, is dedicated to caring for people with dementia.

DigiDEM aims to provide digital services for people with dementia and impaired cognition, as well as setting up a digital guide to dementia for patients and the relatives caring for them. In addition, DigiDEM aims to provide a digital support platform for volunteers caring for people with dementia as well as a way for citizens in Bavaria to participate on a digital basis.

Register to provide information on research into healthcare

DigiDEM builds on the results of the recent ‘Bavarian Dementia Survey’ (BayDem) project, involving a total of 700 people (people with dementia and relatives caring for them). In addition to providing and researching digital services, DigiDEM is also to boost research into dementia care.

The aim is to create a digital register in Bavaria which will contribute to a better understanding of the clinical complexity and long-term progression of dementia.

Data is collected over the long term on treatment and care of those with dementia and the extent to which services are used by those with dementia and the relatives caring for them in all seven administrative regions within Bavaria. It is hoped that the findings will help improve the life of those with dementia and the relatives caring for them, particularly in the more rural areas of Bavaria.

DigiDEM is a collaboration between FAU, represented by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health Technology Assessment and Public Health (Head: Prof. Dr. Peter Kolominsky-Rabas) and the Chair of Medical Informatics (Head: Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Prokosch), Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, represented by the Centre for Health Service Research (Head: Prof. Dr. Elmar Gräßel), and the Leading-Edge Cluster Medical Valley EMN (members of the board: Prof. Dr. Erich R. Reinhardt and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schüttler). DigiDEM is to receive 2.2 million euros in funding from the Bavarian State Ministry of Public Health and Care Services between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020.

Further information:
Prof. Dr. Peter Kolominsky-Rabas
peter.kolominsky@uk-erlangen.de

Further information available (in German) in the press release from the Bavarian Ministry of Health: https://www.stmgp.bayern.de/presse/22-millionen-euro-fuer-digitales-demenz-forsc…