DkIT Winning Students Create App to Enhance Dementia Care

Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) are delighted to congratulate the winning team of the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) Health I-Days, which was managed by the Connected health & Wellbeing Cluster and dConnect Innovation Hub. The winning team of students this year consisted of Dillon Reilly, Erling Munguia, Abiel Lopez and Matthew Riddlell who are all studying Computer Software Development in DkIT.

I-Days is an European initiative with the aim of promoting health innovation among university students through dozens of one-day and two-day programmes held in academic institutions around Europe. Students from all academic areas receive an introduction to practical health innovation tools and compete in teams to tackle real-life health challenges posed by EIT Health, local organisations, private corporations or start-ups. The winning team of each i-Day will attend the Winners’ Event, a final competition that unites students from around Europe.

This year’s theme was Dementia and participation from all academic disciplines in DkIT was encouraged, with over 65 students participating, Breanndán Casey, Manager of the Connected Health & wellbeing Cluster which is based at DkIT commented “ We had a fantastic responses to the 2023 I-Days and the students benefited from support from circa twenty mentors over the one and a half days of the Design Thinking. We’re proud of the innovation from the students and are really looking forward to seeing them compete in Barcelona next month”. Dillon, Erling, Abiel and Matthew collectively created ‘Care Connect’ which is a user-friendly digital platform providing a network of communication that helps care givers and medical professionals who want to enhance dementia care and provide the highest quality care to people living with dementia by streamlining communication and data sharing unlike traditional fragmented methods. A bracelet worn by the patient can allow a newly assigned carer to obtain essential information via NFC in the application.