Technology will also benefit caregivers -- who tend to take on the brunt of a person with declining cognitive function, providing relief from the burden of watching over their parents while still trying to raise their own family and keep a job.

"New technologies have the potential to compensate for functional impairment that are associated with Alzheimer's disease and can foster independence in people who suffer from the disease as well as their caregivers," Maria Carrillo, director of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer's Association, told United Press International.

She presided over a briefing in which researchers rolled out the early- stage technologies that could change the face of how patients with mild cognitive impairment and even early stage Alzheimer's disease are diagnosed and treated.

She noted that several of the projects described in the press briefing at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in Madrid, Spain, are the product of an initiative undertaken by the Alzheimer's Association, Intel and Agilent -- Everyday Technologists for Alzheimer's Caring.

For example, Glenn Smith, professor of psychology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., said a recent survey found that caregivers' most frequent concern about their cognitively impaired spouse, parent or sibling who was living alone was whether the patient would injure themselves by taking medicine incorrectly.

Mayo doctors and technicians worked out a system in which a video camera -- remotely controlled at the clinic -- would be placed in a patient's home so that the patient could be observed taking the medicine. A dozen patients were either watched by the personnel remotely or were called by telephone at the time medication was to be taken to see if the video technology made a difference.

"We were able to have one nurse watch as many as five patients," Smith said. "The only thing we had to do was to ask some patients to wait 15 minutes to take their medications because all of them tended to get up at the same time and wanted to take their medicine at the same time."

With that kink worked out, doctors reported that in about a five-month period in which more than 4,000 calls were made by hospital staff, medical compliance was achieved by 81 percent of the patients being monitored by camera compared with 66 percent compliance among patients called on the telephone.

What's more, there was no change in standard tests of cognition among the patients being viewed on camera, while those who were just called showed a significant decline.

"This study demonstrated that persons with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia could be monitored without technical difficulty," Smith said. "Monitoring reduced deterioration in medication self-administration as well."

The popular video card game Free Cell was also used by scientists to monitor how well patients with mild cognitive impairment were doing. "A hallmark of cognitive impairment is that the ability to do a task varies markedly in these patients," said Holly Jimison, associate professor in the department of medicinal informatics at Oregon Health and Science University,

Free Cell, identified as the most popular computer card game, requires planning and decision making in attempting to win the solitaire-like contest. "We can alter the difficulty of the game," Jimison told UPI, "in order to keep the game from being too frustrating for some people and too easy for others."

However, imbedded in the game is a monitor which keeps track of how long it takes a person to make the necessary moves to win the game. By measuring the variety of the times to accomplish the feat, doctors can determine if the patient is maintaining or losing cognitive function.

"Our early results show that we have a promising technique for monitoring indications of cognitive performance," she said, "and detecting mild cognitive impairment."

Jeffrey Kaye, professor of neurology at Oregon Health and Science University, outlined other uses of technology. "Motions sensors, imbedded in a home unobstrusively, could monitor how long it too a person, for example, to walk down a hallway," he said. Changes in times could alert doctors and caregivers that there might be a problem.

Similarly, devices placed around the home would give observers a chance to see if a person was moving normally or was less and less active, a sign of further impaired cognition, another illness or a psychological problem such as depression, all of which could be more rapidly treated.

"You could also imagine that someone with Alzheimer's disease might have a disrupted sleep pattern," he said, "which could be picked up by these sensors."

While these high tech pilot programs indicate the direction science is heading in designing "smart houses" for these patients, the researchers noted that these ideas are still in their earliest phases and are not yet ready for prime time.

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