David V. Pomeranz

Getting insight into the daily life of someone with dementia often is a difficult goal for family members who are not nearby. There’s now help in the form of a smartphone application conceived by David V. Pomeranz, executive vice president of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale.

The “Balance” app is based on Pomeranz’s decades of experience, professionally and from his mother’s journey with Alzheimer’s, he says. Day-to-day dementia care can involve multiple professional and/or family caregivers, he notes. Balance provides a way for these parties and the dementia patient to record information and communicate.

Users can create “circles” of family members and professional caregivers to share “real-time feedback,” manage medication and more. 

Dementia patients can describe “good days and bad days” in a diary, he says. This can put family members at ease, alert doctors to changes, and enable those living in distant locations to contribute to care, which Pomeranz sees as the app’s “most laudable” aspect.

Because smartphones have become “the centerpiece of daily life,” making them a hub for dementia care also helps “normalize” these activities, he says. 

Pomeranz hopes to raise funds to be able to offer it for Android phones, in addition to the current version for Apple devices.