Award Date: 2018

Project Lead(s): Richard Sztramko, Geriatrician, Assistant Professor and Anthony J. Levinson, Associate Professor, Neuropsychiatrist

Project Title: Multimedia E-Learning to Improve Quality of Life for Family Caregivers of People with Dementia: the iGeriCare Initiative

What is the issue?

The National Dementia Strategy identified the need for caregiver education as a priority. iGeriCare is an award-winning dementia education program for caregivers. As an online program, it has the potential to reach more caregivers and family members compared to in-person programs delivered by point-of-care workers. It is also much more cost–effective. We estimate iGeriCare would cost $2.25 million over five years, whereas an in-person program would cost $51 to $85 million.  

What did we do?

We enhanced iGeriCare with new features. Our additions included ten live, expert-led events, mini-lessons delivered in a weekly email campaign, podcasts, and an innovative “prescription” app. The app allowed healthcare providers to “prescribe” lessons directly to caregivers by email.  

Our goals were to understand if caregivers and clinicians found the program valuable and to determine the best approach for scaling and expanding the innovation nationally. We conducted in-depth interviews with clinicians to understand how they would use the innovation.  

What did we find?

Clinicians were very positive about the program, promotional materials, educational prescription pad, and the app. Our promotional efforts were successful. More than 77,000 visitors came to the website over a period of 15 months. The multimedia lessons and live event videos were viewed thousands of times.