Blaring sirens came out of nowhere, a hazy fog making it difficult for me to see. My fingers felt thick, hampering my ability to grasp small objects. Soon, frustration and empathy overcame me.
That was exactly the point of the Virtual Dementia Tour, an immersive exercise that gave me a palpable sense of what it’s like to have dementia, a degenerative cognitive disorder that affects nearly 6 million Americans, most of them with Alzheimer’s disease.
| Over 200 people attended a sold-out, Inaugural CU Anschutz Geriatrics and Aging Community Research Symposium on Oct. 26. The symposium was a first-of-its-kind opportunity to bring community members, service providers, academics, clinicians, researchers and industry together to exchange updates in aging research. Attendees were able to participate in a Virtual Dementia Tour and learn about the CU Anschutz IMAGE Exercise Research Lab led by Wendy Kohrt, PhD, a professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the CU School of Medicine. |
In just five minutes, through the magic of VR goggles, the exercise delivered a glimpse into a world of staggering confusion. About a dozen other participants joined me on the tour, part of the CU Anschutz Multidisciplinary Center on Aging Inaugural Geriatrics and Aging Community Research Symposium held in the Anschutz Health Sciences Building on Oct. 26.
In the following Q&A, Hillary Lum, MD, PhD, associate professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and an expert on the manifestations of dementia for both the patient and caregiver, expands on my VR experience, highlights the challenges of caring for patients with dementia and talks about a Caregiver Voice Survey she is leading.