UFCSPA and AREA 23 Introduce the First Platform to Use Generative AI for People with Alzheimer's Disease

AREA 23, an IPG Health company, in partnership with Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA), has launched ‘bAIgrapher,’ the first platform to use generative artificial intelligence to make reminiscence therapy accessible and practical for people with Alzheimer's disease. UFCSPA is among the top medical schools in Brazil and has ties to several medical universities around the world.

Like a real-life biographer, ‘bAIgrapher’ starts by collecting stories from patients and their loved ones, interviewing them via a digital platform. Then, it creates personalised biographies that help patients reconnect with their past, a technique that can help strengthen memory and maintain cognitive functioning. The resulting biography is delivered as a printed book or audiobook, allowing patients to relive their memories in a way that is attainable and engaging.

Developed before the emergence of ChatGPT and GPT4, the AI behind ‘bAIgrapher’ is different. Trained on over 400 of the greatest biographies, it’s uniquely equipped to write a compelling life story. One of ‘bAIgrapher’s’ main components is a fine-tuned Large Language Model (LLM), but it’s much more than that: it’s an amalgam of systems working in sequence and in tandem. Its data collection model doesn’t scrape the internet for content, it collects a finite, curated and highly personalised set of data from willing sources. This circumvents a major limitation of popular LLMs available today commonly referred to as “hallucinating,” when generated text isn’t true and confuses historical facts.

Alzheimer’s disease strikes families, not just individuals, and ‘bAIgrapher’ can notably deliver interpersonal reminiscence therapy in a practical, scalable and accessible way. Reminiscence therapy is a proven tool to improve the quality of life of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. It stimulates memories from the past to strengthen cognitive function, reduce depression and anxiety, and increase socialisation.

UFCSPA is set to implement ‘bAIgrapher’ as part of Alzheimer’s disease treatment protocol. The patient population that will be benefited from ‘bAIgrapher’ are currently enrolled in SUS, Brazil’s public healthcare system, largely used by low-income citizens, and they will be analysed longitudinally in several criteria, such as disease onset, improvement in daily activities and impact on caregivers. UFCSPA also intends to extend bAIgrapher to partner institutions in other countries such as Harvard and Brown. Visit here to learn more.