Alzheimer's Association: Program Improvement

The Alzheimer's Association wanted to improve its program to be of more assistance to Alzheimer-sufferers.

The Alzheimer's Association, the world leader in Alzheimer's research and support, is a voluntary health organization dedicated to finding preventions, treatments and, eventually, a cure for the disease.

The Association partnered with Accenture and they conducted a feasibility study to help confirm that the next generation solution would be market- and technology-relevant. The team developed the next generation of The Association's Safe Return program to overtake failing current off-the-shelf technology products.

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The association's mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease by advancing research and to enhance care and support for individuals, their families and caregivers.

To help deliver on that mission, the Alzheimer's Association sought guidance to help it develop the next generation of its Safe Return program. Safe Return is a tracking service that helps caregivers track and return patients who have wandered—a phenomena that affects 60 percent of all Alzheimer's sufferers. Previously, the association managed wandering patients through a manual process involving ID bracelets and call centers.

To respond to customer demands for better tracking services, the Alzheimer's Association decided to improve the performance of the Safe Return program. Additionally, leaders at the association perceived a strategic shift within their membership and the nation's Alzheimer's patient and caregiver population at large. The association required assistance synthesizing these marketplace changes and determining which technology solutions could be best suited for their constituency's current and future needs.

Combining a team of Government, Health & Life Sciences, Technology Labs (Accenture's technology R&D organization) and Global Architecture and Core Technologies resources, Accenture determined that current off-the-shelf technology products were failing in the elderly marketplace because they were not addressing the needs and concerns of the population.

Accenture recommended—and then conducted with the association—a feasibility study to help confirm that the Alzheimer's Association's next generation solution would be market- and technology-relevant. Jointly, the team executed a suite of strategic analyses which sought a fact-based understanding of current and potential customers and their needs. A critical challenge in this effort was overcoming the practical identification of a customer base that is often unable or potentially unwilling to be identified, and sensitively seeking the personal information and needs required to develop products that could dramatically improve the way Alzheimer's patients, and their caregivers, work and live.

Together, the Alzheimer's Association and Accenture developed "Aging Safely"—a vision to help all members age safely in their homes.

This vision aims for patients to sustain a higher quality of life by lowering expenses for care and by allowing them to live in their chosen home longer. The joint Accenture-Alzheimer's Association study included a competitive product assessment, customer segmentation, shaping and evaluation of primary research, synthesis of a cohesive Aging Safely vision, development of product concepts, market testing with new target constituencies, and a prioritized list of recommendations for the CEO and board of directors to move forward effectively and economically into the association's new marketplace. Overall, the study provided the Alzheimer's Association with a path to help increase its service offerings and further its positive impact on Alzheimer's patients and caregivers across the country.

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