image: PolyU researchers’ innovative Music Therapy System for older adults wins CES 2024 Innovation Award for impactful aging technologyLed by Dr Daphne CHEUNG, Associate Professor of the PolyU School of Nursing, the project team that developed the “Music-with-Movement System for Older Adults” won a prestigious global consumer product award in the Accessibility & Aging Tech category at the CES 2024 Innovation Awards.
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A ground-breaking therapeutic music-with-movement system invented by researchers of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has won a prestigious global consumer product award in the ‘Accessibility & Aging Tech’ category at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024 Innovation Awards.
This award serves as a testament to the exceptional impact of music-with-movement intervention on older adults and their caregivers. An integral part of the CES, the annual CES® Innovation Award recognizes outstanding innovation in design, evaluating products based on engineering quality, aesthetics and design, practical value, uniqueness and their impact on quality of life.
Dr Daphne CHEUNG, Associate Professor of the PolyU School of Nursing, led the project that developed the “Music-with-Movement System for Older Adults.” The research team merged an existing therapeutic music intervention system with advances in medical research and engineering technology for the ageing population. This ground-breaking system empowers caregivers and staff working in the elderly care sector to effectively and efficiently engage older adults in music intervention.
The music-with movement system combines many elements including songs, Augmented Reality (AR) interactive games and motion sensors in a tablet, a game engineer and a cloud-based management platform. Integrating oldies music with motion sensors and AR makes it the first of its kind in music interventions. The interactive, cognitively stimulating musical games aim to maintain the cognitive and social stimulation levels of older adults. The user-friendly design of this therapeutic programme also helps alleviate issues caused by social isolation.
Dr Cheung said “It’s my greatest honour to receive this award in recognition of the application of our research into aging technology, a key focus in our work related to the increasingly aging population. The music-with-movement programme reinforces sustainable adoption among old adults for their consistent engagement and facilitates effective intervention and communication.”
While the music-with-movement programme was developed for people in Hong Kong with dementia, it later came to involve family caregivers as a dyadic intervention. Integrating current information and communication technology as implementation strategies for music intervention builds effective communication and collaboration and more effective bonding among old adults, caregivers, staff working in elderly centres and health professionals.
The increasing prevalence of dementia is a public health concern amid an increasingly aging population. Multisensory therapy and cognitive stimulation activity such as Music with Movement are applied to improve cognitive functions and health conditions of older adults with cognitive impairment in different settings.
Dr Cheung has conducted research on the effects of Music with Movement intervention on people with cognitive impairment for more than ten years. While research findings have showed promising effects of Music with Movement intervention on people with dementia, the development of a technology-enabled intervention protocol for training and implementation is critical.
Interdisciplinary collaboration, empowered by Information and Technology (I&T), can facilitate the alignment of people from different disciplines and backgrounds, leading to better health outcomes. In the long run, sustainable implementation strategies can help caregivers and staffs become competent in both homecare and nursing home environments. Also, training to nursing students on this portable programme would further expand the scale of community research and benefit a wider range of people with dementia.
A research study of Dr Cheng, “A Home-based Dyadic Music-with-Movement Intervention for People with Dementia and Caregivers: A Hybrid Type 2 Cluster-Randomized Effectiveness-Implementation Design” was published on Clinical Intervention in Aging in October, 2022. The research aimed to evaluate the adoption of Music with Movement intervention using a sustainable approach to improve the psychosocial well-being of people with dementia and their caregivers.
In terms of clinical efficacy, the study found that the intervention is effective in improving anxiety and depressive symptoms in people with dementia and reducing stress levels of family caregivers. While for real practice, information and communication technology is identified as an important enabler to support the delivery of integrated and coordinated primary health care.
The study noted that working closely with external stakeholders, who possess good communication skills and understanding on cultural perspective and human factors, is key to success. Innovative technology helps bridge the science-to-service gap through meaningful collaborations among frontline practitioners, administrators, caregivers and researchers.