DementiaGuide Inc. releases SymptomGuideTM on World Alzheimer’s Day

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 19, 2006 – Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, September 21, 2006 - DementiaGuide Inc. today released a new web application, SymptomGuideTM, to help people with dementia and their caregivers.

SymptomGuide™ is an online application for tracking and managing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. It is now available at www.dementiaguide.ca.

SymptomGuide™ provides people with dementia, their caregivers and family members an informative unique tool for better understanding, describing and tracking symptoms. Unlike the typical online information sources which provide static information, SymptomGuide™ enables users to create unique, individualized profiles, to track and better understand symptoms over time.

Dr. Kenneth Rockwood, president and CEO of Halifax-based DementiaGuide Inc., and well known researcher and geriatrician, has translated his expertise into a web- based information resource and profiling tool. SymptomGuide™ is the result of over ten year’s research carried out by Dr. Rockwood and is designed to help people affected by Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias to cope with the daily challenges they face as their abilities and activities change.

Dr Rockwood said, “This tool can be an important guide for discussions with family, physicians and other health professionals. A person’s SymptomGuide™ profile is updated over time permitting its tracking features to show a graph format of changes by individual symptom. This can then be printed for physician appointments”.

Rockwood goes on to say, “Each person is unique in when and how they exhibit symptoms. Family members are committed to helping their spouse or parent live in the world they were familiar with. SymptomGuide™ helps to ‘make sense’ of what typically seems like random unrelated symptoms often causing highly stressful situations.”

Over a decade of research and conversation with patients and their caregivers has been the foundation for www.dementiaguide.ca and SymptomGuide™, which offer an easy-to-use resource about all aspects of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. SymptomGuide™ is the result of extensive development and design to provide comprehensive current information about dementia, its symptoms, stages and treatments. It is easy-to-use for capturing an individual’s information and experience with dementia, and the information can be stored and used by caregivers and health professionals to track progress.

Dr. Rockwood believes that capturing information that is specific to the individual and their experience better enables the patient, their caregivers and physicians to establish realistic goals and anticipate the disease’s progression.

“As DementiaGuide’s IT engineering development partner, Timeless Medical Systems is very pleased to be a part of the SymptomGuide™ and www.DementiaGuide.ca release today”, stated John Rowe, vice president of sales and marketing. “We believe the results of our collaboration will be a milestone for people living with dementia now and in the future”.

Since the early nineties, there have been dramatic advancements in the type and availability of drug therapy for people with dementia; however, there is no cure. Prescription medications, non-prescription medications, and physical activities and lifestyle intervention are often components of a person’s treatment plan. Gaining more specific knowledge about how different treatments affect the progress of different symptoms is important for improving approaches to treatment.

SymptomGuide™ may be accessed by visiting: www.dementiaguide.ca

For further information contact:

DementiaGuide Inc.
Kathryn Garden, Vice President, Operations
T 902.421.5710
kathryn.garden@dementiaguide.ca
Timeless Medical Systems
John Rowe, VP of Sales and Marketing
T 902.892.2035 x 7007
john@timelessmedical.com