During Brain Awareness Week, we shine a spotlight on Associate Professor Anupama Ginige from the School of Computer, Data, and Mathematical Sciences, who is using her expertise in applied computing in health to tackle one of Australia's greatest healthcare challenges – dementia.
For over a decade, Associate Professor Ginige has particularly focussed her skills and experience in applied computing to specialise in improving people's health and wellbeing.
A member of the School of Computer, Data and Mathematical Sciences, Translational Health Research Institute, and Informatics and Technology for Health (InTecH) Lab, her research areas include applying information and AI technologies in cognitive health, clinical classification and coding, eye tracking, "smart spaces" for remote patient monitoring, and health data for personalised medicine and operational efficiency.
Over the years her IT skills have supported many research teams in developing the digital tools needed to conduct major clinical trials, including most recently, playing a significant role in the groundbreaking Maintain Your Brain project.
Led by the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) at UNSW, Maintain Your Brain is the largest internet-based trial ever conducted to attempt to prevent cognitive decline and dementia.
It involved more than 6,000 participants aged 55-77 years of age, and used an innovative online lifestyle intervention targeting modifiable risk factors for dementia in a bid to prevent cognitive decline in at-risk older adults.
In addition to researchers from UNSW, it brought together experts from a number of other Australian universities, including Western Sydney University, University of Melbourne, Monash University and Flinders University.
As the IT lead, Associate Professor Ginige was pivotal in the design, development, and implementation of the online platform that supported this landmark trial.
Findings by the research team were published in Nature Medicine , and attracted much media attention, not only for its scale but also for the promising outcomes achieved through personalised lifestyle interventions.
The trial targeted four key areas: physical activity, nutrition, cognitive activity, and mental health, specifically addressing depression and anxiety.
The trial's success depended heavily on the efficient delivery of these personalised intervention modules over a three-year period and follow-ups at the end of each year. These modules were tailored based on the participants' initial assessments and engagement scores.
Associate Professor Ginige and her team had to develop such a sophisticated online system from the ground up.
"Gathering requirements from the various module leads, we needed to develop and extensively test the system to ensure it was user-friendly for older adults who may not be tech-savvy," said Associate Professor Ginige.
Associate Professor Ginige's team also had to ensure that the platform was adaptable for various devices used by the elderly community, as well as prioritising data security, and incorporating data management facilities within the system for researchers.
Importantly, the findings highlighted the benefit of personalised interventions and how lifestyle behaviours can play a major role in preventing cognitive decline.
By working together across disciplines, experts like Associate Professor Ginige are deploying their extensive IT knowledge and expertise to bring new hope for how we can improve cognition and ultimately prevent dementia among older Australians.
