EGI Supports Research into Dementia Risk Reduction Through the Lethe Project

Dementia affects 55 million individuals worldwide. Every year, there are nearly 10 million new cases and dementia is the 7th leading cause of death among older people globally (Source: World Health Organization). Whilst there is currently no cure for dementia, there is potential to modify the course of the disease with early preventive actions.

Over the past 5 years, the Lethe project team has been developing a data-driven risk factor prediction model for older individuals at risk of cognitive decline, novel digital biomarkers and a digitally enabled intervention based on the evolution of the FINGER study. Lethe is a 6 million Euro project, funded under the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme.

LETHE will establish novel digital biomarkers for the early detection of risk factors, based on unobtrusive ICT-based passive and active monitoring. The aim is to establish a digital-enabled intervention for cognitive decline prevention based on the evolution of a successful protocol (FINGER study) evolving into an ICT-based preventive lifestyle intervention through individualised profiling, personalised recommendations, feedback and support –FINGER 2.0-, well targeted on a population stratified by cost-effective biological biomarkers.

LETHE is leading to a more personalised risk factor prevention for persons in the initial stages of cognitive decline, thereby empowering people to an active and healthy lifestyle. Expansion of digital-enabled health preventive approaches, by reaching out to large populations, can save healthcare systems costs on expensive traditional interventions and confer benefits for the wider society.

The EGI Federation has played two main roles in the project: coordinating the service architecture work and delivering an infrastructure solution. This infrastructure solution has been built upon EGI FedCloud and EGI Check-In services. These services provide server platforms and storage for sensitive data, as well as an AAI (Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure) solution that supports the entire chain of applications and middleware. The service providers for these components have been EGI Federation members: CNRS for FedCloud and GRNET for Check-In.

The project concludes at the end of June 2025. If you would like to find out more about the project and listen to the preliminary results from the research, join us at the online final event that will be held on 24 June from 09.30-11.00 CEST. You can also visit the project website to keep updated about the latest news and events.

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