SAMS - Software Architecture for Mental health Self management
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Computer Science
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
Publications
Stringer G
(2022)
Assessment of non-directed computer-use behaviours in the home can indicate early cognitive impairment: A proof of principle longitudinal stud
in Aging and Mental Health
Stringer G
(2022)
Assessment of non-directed computer-use behaviours in the home can indicate early cognitive impairment: A proof of principle longitudinal study
in Aging and Mental Health
Stringer G
(2018)
Can you detect early dementia from an email? A proof of principle study of daily computer use to detect cognitive and functional decline.
in International journal of geriatric psychiatry
Stringer G
(2021)
Enhancing 'meaningfulness' of functional assessments: UK adaptation of the Amsterdam IADL questionnaire.
in International psychogeriatrics
Stringer, G.
(2016)
From click to cognition: detecting cognitive decline through daily computer us
Sutcliffe A
(2018)
Known and unknown requirements in healthcare
in Requirements Engineering
Couth S
(2019)
Which computer-use behaviours are most indicative of cognitive decline? Insights from an expert reference group.
in Health informatics journal
| Description | To date, we have undertaken a requirements elicitation exercise that has helped us understand the features that are essential of the SAMS software is to be accepted and used by its target user group. As a side-effect, we have had to develop a novel mix-mode requirements elicitation technique for home healthcare-monitoring systems for senior users. As of the end of 2015, the SAMS software has been installed on 32 consenting older adults' home computers and is logging encrypted and anonymised data collected from computer use to a server running in Lancaster University (with planned mirror at Manchester). The SAMS software has been engineered to work across a range of operating systems, applications and web browsers. A great deal of effort was devoted to making it robust and resilient and benign with respect to its affect on users and their use of their computers. Analysis of this data is being informed by the results of an earlier (also in 2015) cross-sectional study in which cohorts of healthy adults and people with Mild Cognitive Impairment or early Alzheimer's Disease performed a set series of tasks on a computer. Early analysis of the results suggests marked differences in performance between the two cohorts in terms of (e.g.) speed of completing tasks. The data from the longitudinal study is still in progress. There is a large volume of data to analyse. The text analysis too completed near the end of the project (SNOWCAT - see Software) has now been validated on two previous studies in the literature; one on novels and one on press conferences. This has broadly confirmed the findings of these earlier studies but also revealed that propositional density is not a reliable indicator of language decline in dementia, as was suggested in a third earlier study. |
| Exploitation Route | The requirements elicitation method is likely to have applications to other discretionary use software systems, particularly those that are in affect-laden domains such as mental health monitoring. The SAMS monitoring software and the overall systems architecture of which it forms a part could serve as a reusable resource for other projects. Indeed it is planned to use it for logging eye-movement data in EP/M006255/1. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Healthcare |
| Description | Please see the impact description provided for EP/K015796/1 |
| Title | The SAMS system |
| Description | SAMS monitors computer interaction to identify early signs of the onset of cognitive decline that may signal the development of dementia. At the end of the SAMS project, the SAMS monitoring system (See under Software) had been deployed to over 30 older adult users's Windows computers, and data collected over a c. 8-month period. This data is still being analysed, but the data itself forms a potentially valuable resource for other researchers. |
| Type | Diagnostic Tool - Non-Imaging |
| Current Stage Of Development | Initial development |
| Year Development Stage Completed | 2016 |
| Development Status | On hold |
| Impact | The impacts to date relate to the development of monitoring software, interns of: - software architecture - privacy and security - software reliability - user requirements The understanding that has been developed is likely to be of benefit to developers of ambient healthcare monitoring systems. |
| Title | SAMS monitoring system |
| Description | The SAMS monitoring system runs as a background application on Windows 8 and Windows 10 machines, collecting a variety of data on user interactions with the operating system and with a range of Windows applications. Any users on whose computer the SAMS software runs are assigned a unique identifier by a designated member of the SAMS clinical research team. The collected data is tagged with this user ID and stripped of all other information that could be used to identify the user. It is then encrypted and periodically uploaded to a server. The server stores the data securely for use by the SAMS research team. Only the designated members of the clinical research team is able to associate the user IDs with which the data is tagged with the actual user identity. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | To date impact is listed to research publications as the software is tailored to the goals of the SAMS project. There have been discussions about using it for new mental and brain health research projects but these are still at an early stage. |
| Title | SNOWCAT |
| Description | SNOWCAT is a tailored integration of several text analysis techniques to detect signs of decline in language consistent with dementia. Given a set of documents (e.g. diary entries over a period of months), a range of metrics is produced that summarise the author's use of language. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | To date, replication of published analyses of novels and press conferences. |
| Description | 'From Click to Cognition: Using daily computer use data to detect cognitive change in elderly people', |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Health professionals |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards None as yet |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.globaleventslist.elsevier.com/events/2014/02/dementias-2014-16th-national-dementias-confe... |
| Description | Institute of Brain Behaviour and Mental Health Postgraduate Summer Showcase, The University of Manchester (2016). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation; Institute of Brain Behaviour and Mental Health (IBBMH), Postgraduate Summer Showcase, The University of Manchester (2016). Stringer. G., Brown, L., Montaldi, D., and Leroi, I. Can you detect Alzheimer's from an email? Measuring computer use behaviours to detect functional impairment in early dementia. Dissemination to PG students and academics. AWARDS: 1st place for best oral presentation in the IBBMH postgraduate showcase (June, 2016). 3rd place for best poster in IBBMH as part of the Postgraduate Summer Showcase, The University of Manchester (2016). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305264513_Can_you_detect_Alzheimer%27s_from_an_email_Measur... |
| Description | Oral presentation (Couth) - International Psychogeriatrics Association International Congress 2016. San Francisco, USA. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Oral presentation - International Psychogeriatrics Association International Congress 2016. San Francisco, USA. Couth, S., Stringer, G., Gledson, A., Mellor, J. and Leroi, I. (2016) Detecting changes in computer-use behaviours as an indicator of early cognitive decline: a feasibility study. International Psychogeriatrics Association International Congress 2016. San Francisco, USA. Dissemination to peer community - IPA's fundamental role is to connect geriatric mental health care professionals with one another so they can share information, exchange ideas, and collaborate to provide better mental health for older people. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Oral presentation (Couth) - The British Society of Gerontology 45th Annual Conference, University of Stirling, UK. (2106) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Oral presentation - The British Society of Gerontology 45th Annual Conference, University of Stirling, UK. Couth, S., Stringer, G., Leroi, I., Sutcliffe, A., Montaldi, D., Poliakoff, E., McDonald, K., Rust, J., Thompson, J., Bruno, D. and Brown, L. (2016) Identifying computer-use behaviours that could indicate cognitive decline: insights from an expert reference group. Oral presentation (by Brown, L.). Dissemination to specialist peer community - Conference is a key event in aiming to enhance knowledge about ageing and later life. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Oral presentation (Stringer) - International Psychogeriatrics Association International Congress 2016. San Francisco, USA. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Oral prsentation - International Psychogeriatrics Association International Congress 2016. San Francisco, USA. Stringer, G., Couth, S., Brown, L., Gledson, A., Mellor, J., Sutcliffe, A., Sawyer, P., Keane, J., Bull, C., and Leroi, I. (2016). Can you detect Alzheimer's from an email? Measuring computer use behaviours to detect functional impairment in early dementia. Dissemination to peer community - IPA's fundamental role is to connect geriatric mental health care professionals with one another so they can share information, exchange ideas, and collaborate to provide better mental health for older people. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Oral presentation (Stringer) - The British Society of Gerontology 45th Annual Conference, University of Stirling, UK. (2016) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Oral presentation - The British Society of Gerontology 45th Annual Conference, University of Stirling, UK (2016) Stringer, G., Brown, L., Leroi, L. and Sikkes, S. Capturing declining daily activity performance in a technologically-advancing older population: UK cultural validation of the Amsterdam IADL Questionnaire. Dissemination to specialist peer community - Conference is a key event in aiming to enhance knowledge about ageing and later life. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Poster presentation - ARUK conference, Manchester, UK (2016). |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Alzheimer's Research UK Conference, 2016 - poster presentation Stringer, G. and Couth, S. on behalf of the SAMS study team. The SAMS Project: A protocol to capture early changes in cognitive and functional ability detected by daily computer use. Dissemination to specialist peer community at the UK's largest dementia research conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298318348_The_SAMS_Project_A_protocol_to_capture_early_chan... |
| Description | Using technology in the detection and management of cognitive impairment: the Manchester experience (Nice, France; Nov 2014) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Talks sparked questions and discussion afterwards None as yet |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.innovation-alzheimer.fr/ia-workshop-2014-november-6-2014-institut-claude-pompidou/ |