LUMEN

Principal Investigator: Dr Judith Harrison
Sponsor: Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Funding: Newcastle NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and the Academy of Medical Sciences

LUMEN is a clinical research study developing and testing an AI-enabled conversation tool to improve dementia assessment and care. The system uses large language models to help carers describe changes in a loved one’s cognition and daily functioning, generating structured, clinically relevant collateral histories that support memory-clinic assessments.

The study will evaluate LUMEN’s usability, acceptability, and clinical utility within NHS memory clinics, gathering feedback from both carers and clinicians to refine its design before larger-scale validation. Co-production workshops with people affected by dementia will ensure the tool is accessible, culturally inclusive, and responsive to real clinical needs.

By combining natural language processing with clinician and carer insight, LUMEN aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy and streamline assessment workflows—particularly for complex presentations such as Lewy body dementia.

The project is sponsored by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and funded by the Newcastle NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, the Academy of Medical Sciences and Newcastle Health research Partnership. Co-funding from the BRC has supported study set-up and project management, with research governance provided through NHS sponsorship.