CerebrumEng

Good morning! This article speaks about a mechanism to locate patients with Alzheimer's disease that is being developed in São Paulo, Brazil. 


The Federal University of Sao Carlos, in São Paulo, is developing a tracking device for the elderly to prevent them getting lost during a hike or trip to the supermarket, for example. The goal is to get a tracker device that ensures greater autonomy to those with some memory loss or early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The technology used to locate seniors with memory problems is the same used to track prisoners on parole and stolen cars. In Portugal, there is already research on the use in patients with Alzheimer's.


 "In Brazil, our study is groundbreaking," says the researcher from the University, Sofia Pavarini. 


"The ideal is that older people start using the system early, so that both the family and themselves to prepare for the more advanced stages and debilitating disease. 


" In addition to researchers in health - doctors, speech therapists, psychologists and occupational therapists - participate in the project electrical engineers, production and social workers. The multidisciplinarity of professionals engaged in research aimed at making it more palatable to the elderly illiterate use of the device locator.

"We feared that the hundred elders participating in the survey had difficulty handling the device or forgot to charge its battery, which lasts 24 hours. Even in the poorest districts, it did not. Largely because of the popularization of mobile phones. As the device resembles a mobile phone, there was always someone at home, if not the very elderly, who could program it and remembered to call load, "says Sofia. Now the researchers plan to test the device in the form of watches and belts.