Culturally Appropriate Language Models and Systems

Imperial Team in Peru collaborating with local communities to co-design a culturally sensitive tool for diagnosing and supporting patients with dementia and their carers.

About

Health systems in low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries are ill-equipped to address the challenges posed by the rapidly changing aging population and associated chronic diseases. In the case of Peru, dementia presents multiple challenges to the country's health system. The lack of social care infrastructure means that care is largely provided by overburdened family members. A major issue is that dementia and its comorbidities are difficult to diagnose in individuals living in remote areas or with limited formal education.

The project aims to strengthen the health system in Peru to meet the challenges highlighted by dementia. To achieve this, technology and trained community health workers will be employed to bring expert diagnosis, treatment, and support to the homes of patients and carers. Patients, carers, healthcare workers, not-for-profit organizations, academics, and policymakers are collaboratively designing the research to ensure maximum impact for PWD in Peru and beyond.

The Imperial Team is co-designing responsible technology, such as a dementia screening tool and an intervention to support informal carers with the rural communities of Peru across four distinct regions of Peru, which include the capital city (Lima), a coastal semi-urban region (Tumbes), the Andes mountains (Huancayo), and the Amazon jungle (Nauta). All the stakeholders were engaged through iterative, culturally sensitive design approaches that include ethnography, interviews, and workshops.

The Imperial Impact Team with the Community Health Workers of San Jacinto, Tumbes, North Peru

The Imperial Impact Team with the Community Health Workers of San Jacinto, Tumbes, North Peru

Field observation in Tumbes with a community health worker, an older adult and his daughter

Field observation in Tumbes with a community health worker, an older adult and his daughter

View of Nauta, small town in the Amazon Forest

View of Nauta, small town in the Amazon Forest

Co-Design and ideation sessions with the community health workers of Nauta

Co-Design and ideation sessions with the community health workers of Nauta

Field observation in Huancayo, on the Andes

Field observation in Huancayo, on the Andes

Fast prototyping of the interface and support of the mHealth System to diagnose dementia

Fast prototyping of the interface and support of the mHealth System to diagnose dementia

Field observation in Villa El Salvador, Lima

Field observation in Villa El Salvador, Lima

Contact us

Dyson School of Design Engineering
Imperial College London
25 Exhibition Road
South Kensington
London
SW7 2DB

design.engineering@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7594 8888

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