People living with Alzheimer's or other dementia may not remember what they had for breakfast that day, but they can often recall memories from long ago.

That's because Alzheimer's disease first affects the part of the brain that handles short term memory.

And that's the research behind a new app created to help spark those memories locally.

I sat down with the founder of this platform earlier today, who's a local high school student.

Aniket Todd Anata is a high school senior who has developed the App Derby Days for patients in memory care facilities and their caretakers.

So tell us first how you had the idea for this is from your volunteer work, right?

Yeah.

So I'm interested in being a doctor.

And so I've been volunteering in hospital settings since, like freshman sophomore year.

I'm a senior now.

So after I was volunteering in the, you know, those general hospitals, I saw a few memory care residents, like residents with early onset dementia and things like that.

And so that really sparked my interest in memory care specifically.

So like dementia and Alzheimer's.

And then since then, I started volunteering in memory care centers and at all the various memory care centers that I volunteered at.

I saw a really big contrast in the type of activities that they had.

Some were super engaging and others others not so much.

And so I started doing some research.

So, you know, how can I make sure that all the residents at these centers have something that connects with them?

And so that's how Derby Days was born.

So this whole idea is hyperlocal.

And so tell us why, how it works and why it's focused on those local memories.

Yeah.

So the whole concept behind it is this thing known as reminiscence therapy.

And that's tapping into a resident's long term memory rather than their short term memory, which is usually fragmented.

And so their long term memory is actually intact a lot of the times.

And so by mentioning things that happened way back, like the Kentucky Derby at this time, or another Louisville specific thing at this time that can actually bring back some of their memories and prompt conversation, which, you know, will make Louisville residents feel like they belong and feel like they can have a conversation that they're actually a part of.

So there's kind of three different activities on this site that you can do with these patients.

So explain what they are and why each of them are different and important in their own way.

Yeah.

So the first one is just a set of games that memory care residents can play with the staff members, right?

So they can play in a group setting.

And it includes things like matching landmarks, doing word searches where the words are Louisville specific things, and then after you match the words, there's a conversation question regarding that word.

And so it's mostly games like that that are meant to spark conversations through actually playing those games together.

Right.

And so the second one is a chat bot that a memory care resident can interact with, and it has that actual specific resident's background information through a staff member typing information in.

Right.

And so the last activity is actually just a sort of time capsule.

And this came from the idea that when I was volunteering at a lot of memory care centers in the past, I saw that a lot of residents had these little boxes or capsules outside of their rooms with pictures from their life time.

Right.

And I thought that we could digitize that and put it online so that a staff member, or even family members of the resident could upload pictures that related to them whenever they wanted.

And so by being able to access that, they could, you know, see those in a much more personalized and efficient way.

Yeah, like going through an old photo app.

Exactly, exactly those memories and conversations.

So important.

Yeah.

So tell me why, how this could be adapted for use in other communities.

Yeah.

So I'm a senior right now, which means I'm going off to college next year.

And the whole plan and this has been, you know, since this is a hyperlocal thing to Louisville, as I go off to more places, I can volunteer in memory care centers, there, learn what specifically their residents resonate with, because that's how memory, Derby Day started here, right?

It's that I started volunteering as a general memory care volunteer and talked to them about what specifically they resonated with.

And based on that, I added those activities, features, and games to the website.

This is already being used in five different memory care centers here in Louisville.

What's sort of the feedback that you've heard from them as you see residents using your platform?

Yeah.

So the derby days, you see today is not the derby days that was there.

It took a year ago or even one month ago.

Right.

It's constantly improving.

We're constantly redesigning.

It's actually this term we're co-designing with the residents.

So whenever I go to a new center, I talk to the residents, I show them the app, and then I ask, you know, what is missing?

And that's how our most recent feature, the word search, was added right?

Because I remember there was this resident and that I talked to, I showed her all the games and she really wasn't finding anything from them.

Right.

And so she told me that she was super into word searches and I'm like, that's the next feature.

So now words are in there and that's how the process works.

Yeah, I've learned so many things in terms of web design also, and just general interactions with senior citizens.

Yeah.

And that is how great businesses all develop.

Is that constant adapting and learning.

So what's the biggest thing you feel like you've learned from this process?

Definitely.

How big the gap is between what you think is a finished product and what's actually a finished product.

Right?

Because when I first created the website, I was like, wow, this is this is going to be awesome.

This is going to help so many people.

And, you know, it has helped people.

But there's always, always ways to improve and ways to make it better.

Yeah.

And and it will continue to thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

We appreciate it very much.

We're going to keep an eye on that one.

Derby days is a free platform.

You can access it at Derby days.

Dot vessel dot app.