20 – 22 October. These were the dates of this year’s annual Alzheimer Europe Conference 2020. Due to the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak, the conference took place virtually, under the slogan “Dementia in a changing world!”. The Executive Director Jean Georges and presenter Kim Coppes hosted this event, guiding us through discussions and contributions about current issues in dementia care and research. DISTINCT ESRs were also involved in this interesting event – in many different ways!
A lot of our ESRs attended the conference, made connections with other researchers, engaged in discussions around research topics, and listened to speakers of various professions. Some also has the chance to present their own work.
Poster presentations at the 30th Alzheimer Europe Conference 2020
Some ESRs contributed to the conference in form of a poster presentation:
- Golnaz Atefi (ESR5) presented the protocol of a systematic review that assesses the feasibility, clinical effectiveness, quality of evidence, and mechanisms of change in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) interventions for informal caregivers. Click here to check out Golnaz’s Poster.
- The poster of Josephine Tan (ESR14) gave insight into the planned randomized controlled trial (RCT) study to test the effectiveness of a digital photo-activity intervention on the social interaction, mood, and quality of life of people with advanced dementia in nursing homes. Furthermore, this RCT study will evaluate the impact on person-centred attitude and sense of competence in (in)formal caregivers. You can check out her poster here.
- Wei Qi Koh (ESR12) presented two posters on the results of two scoping reviews she carried out. The first one gave an overview of the results of a review she carried out regarding the evidence on the use and impact of the ‘Joy for All robotic cat’, a social pet robot to promote the social health of older adults, including people living with dementia. Click here to check out this poster. The second poster summarized the process and results of a scoping review related to the barriers and facilitators affecting the implementation of social robots in real-world practice. She collaborated with Simone Anna Felding (ESR4) and Kübra Beliz Budak (ESR15) on this review. You can check out the poster by clicking here.
Oral presentations at the 30th Alzheimer Europe Conference 2020
One of our DISTINCT ESRs, David Neal (ESR6), presented his work during an INTERDEM breakout session of the conference. The topic of the session was adopting to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this session, David presented the results of two consecutive pilot RCTs regarding the feasibility of the FindMyApps intervention. This tablet-based intervention is used to help people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) find user-friendly apps for self-management and social participation. Results demonstrated the feasibility of the intervention to promote social health in people affected by dementia. However, many study participants required ongoing caregiver support. Based on proven feasibility, a definitive RCT in community-dwelling people with MCI or mild dementia started in spring 2020 (target n = 150 dyads; 75 experimental, 75 control). This RCT is part of DISTINCT.
Twitter contributions at #30AEC
Our social media ESRs Gianna Kohl (ESR10)and Pascale Heins (ESR11) were pretty active on Twitter during the 30th Alzheimer Europe Conference. They tweeted about the sessions and presentations using the conference’s official hashtag #30AEC. The tweets got retweeted by different people, including the official account of Alzheimer Europe. One tweet was even shown by the host of the conference Jean Gorges during a plenary session (see pictures below)!
The conference was a great opportunity to make new connections all over the world. The DISTINCT Twitter account gained a lot of new followers, including researchers and professionals worldwide working in dementia research/care. We are looking forward to sharing our research findings with them. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the 31st Alzheimer Europe Conference in October 2021, hopefully in person in Bucharest!