21 September marks the 30th World Alzheimer's Day. On the same day, Tencent SSV Silver Technology Lab and Tencent Interactive Entertainment Social Value Exploration Center released a popular science game on Alzheimer's disease - "Room 301 in 6 Buildings"; The function of voice screening for mild cognitive impairment (the previous stage of Alzheimer's disease) will also be officially launched in the "Silver Brain Power" mini program.
At the same time, Tencent announced that it will donate nearly 5 million yuan to cooperate with the Sixth Hospital of Peking University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine to jointly explore the use of games and digital methods to promote the prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment in the elderly. "Our expertise only works in hospitals and very few people can help. We also want to explore innovative ways to make our expertise more valuable to society, which is why I am willing to continue to cooperate with Tencent." Wang Huali, director of the clinical research office of the Institute of Mental Health of the Sixth Hospital of Peking University, said in her speech.
According to a 2022 report by the international medical journal The Lancet Public Health, there are more than 9.83 million Alzheimer's disease patients among the elderly aged 60 and above in mainland China, ranking first in the world. According to Dou Ruigang, head of Tencent's SSV silver technology laboratory, the elderly over 65 years old usually have an incidence of about 5%, and the incidence rate increases by 5% for each additional ten years old, and the incidence of people over 80 years old has an incidence of more than 25%.
Not only is the incidence rate high, but also "irreversible", there is currently no effective treatment method in the world, once Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed, it is difficult to cure. "If you can consciously intervene at the MCI (mild cognitive impairment) stage, you can delay the entry into Alzheimer's disease for seven to ten years." For 80-year-olds, if they can delay it for seven to ten years, they may not get sick for the rest of their lives. Dou Ruigang mentioned in his speech.
In June this year, in order to prevent and slow down the occurrence of cognitive impairment, the Department of Aging Health of the National Health Commission issued the Notice on Carrying out Alzheimer's Prevention and Promotion Actions (2023-2025), encouraging the implementation of Alzheimer's prevention and promotion actions nationwide.
Tencent SSV Yinfa Technology Lab actively responds to the actions of the National Health Commission, and the donation will focus on the goal of "early detection and early intervention" to create a community-based digital closed-loop model covering four stages: science popularization, screening, diagnosis and early intervention.
In the section of science popularization and education, Tencent released the online and offline game "Room 301 in 6 buildings", simulating the world through the eyes of Alzheimer's patients. Tencent introduced it to mobile phones for the first time, and at the same time created an offline version of the game in Shanghai - a secret room where the public can explore and experience in the field, calling on more people to pay attention to and experience the real world faced by Alzheimer's patients. One user who experienced the game "I cried the first level, even though I'm only 26 years old, I seem to have seen that day." I'm not afraid of loneliness, I'm afraid of blankness."
In the screening stage, Tencent SSV Silver Technology Lab is cooperating with Shanghai Jiaotong University to develop the voice screening function of "Silver Brain Power". The technology, based on voiceprint recognition, can screen the elderly for mild cognitive impairment in just 3-5 minutes, which is a bold and innovative attempt worldwide.
According to Zhou Ying, an assistant researcher at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, the traditional cognitive impairment screening method requires the elderly to complete a self-test, answer 8 questions, and then invite professionals to visit the elderly for 1-to-1 measurement, and the whole process often takes 40 minutes to 1 hour. The voice screening function of "Silver Brain Power" only needs to let the elderly answer questions into the mobile phone, such as saying as many fruit types or pet names as possible in 1 minute, looking at a picture to describe the content of the picture as richly as possible, etc., 3-5 minutes can determine whether the elderly have mild cognitive impairment.
Zhou Ying introduced that compared with the traditional MoCA screening method, the accuracy rate of voice screening has reached more than 80%. This innovation will greatly improve the inclusiveness of screening for mild cognitive impairment and improve the efficiency of screening for community workers and medical personnel.
Once the elderly with mild cognitive impairment are found in the voice screening stage, they will have the opportunity to try a new "digital therapy" in the future - "Brain Intelligence Fun Gang", which is a mild cognitive impairment intervention game developed by Tencent SSV Silver Technology Lab, Tencent Interactive Entertainment Social Value Exploration Center, Tencent Miying and QQ Music. Generally speaking, the elderly with mild cognitive impairment need to go to the community for offline brain and physical intervention training, but many elderly people have inconvenient legs and feet, and it is difficult to stick to it. This "Brain Intelligence Fun Gang" will allow the elderly to play games at home and carry out cognitive exercises in a relaxed and fun way, such as setting up cooking competitions and poetry competitions.
"We integrate the brain regions that need training in medicine into the game, and in the future, we will explore the game competition of the elderly in the community, so that the elderly are motivated to continue training." Jiang District, head of ecology at Tencent Interactive Entertainment's Social Value Exploration Center, said in an interview. It is understood that at present, "Brain Intelligence Fun Gang" is doing clinical trials and plans to apply for a registration certificate for Class II medical devices, which will become a "digital prescription" in the future.
Source: China Youth Network