An Accessible Machine Learning-Based ADRD Screening Tool for Families and Caregivers

A machine learning-enabled speech-based screening tool for AD/ADRD caregivers
Awardee Organization(s): University of Southern California
Principal Investigator(s): Maja Matarić, PhD
Official Project Title: An Accessible Machine Learning-Based ADRD Screening Tool for Families and Caregivers
AITC Partner: PennAITech
Website(s): www.robotics.usc.edu/~maja

The goal of this project is to develop an app-based screening system capable of detecting early signs of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) using data captured during sessions of standard clinical AD diagnostics. Approximately 50 million people worldwide are diagnosed with dementia. As of 2021, an estimated 6.2 million Americans, one in nine people 65 and older, are living with AD.The majority of affected people do not obtain early screening toward a timely dementia diagnosis. Consequently, there is a large and rapidly growing need for lowcost, non-invasive, and accessible tools for dementia screening toward alerting families and caregivers and encouraging them to pursue medical evaluation. The proposed app is intended for family members and caregivers and will be designed to be easy to use and encourage regular screening. The goal is for the proposed app to enable convenient early flagging of AD for the general public.