A familiar voice on the other end of the phone.
REMI is a conversational companion for people living with dementia. It calls — or texts — on the phone they already answer, talks with them about their own life, and shows the family what happened.
No app to install. No new device. No password for them to remember.
Every call is transcribed for the family — and remembered for the next one.
Why we built it
The hardest part of the day is the quiet part.
Between visits, appointments and a caregiver's own life, there are long stretches when someone living with dementia has no one to talk to. Not medical hours — ordinary hours. And the conversation that helps most in those hours isn't a quiz or a memory test. It's someone who is glad to hear their voice and genuinely curious about their life.
REMI is built on reminiscence-therapy principles: invite the story, follow where it goes, never correct or interrogate. It is patient in a way that a tired human at 4pm cannot always be.
“You usually don't need to ask a question at all — just react naturally and let them take the conversation where they want.”
From REMI's own conversation guidelines, prepared for clinician review at EmoryHow it works
Set it up once. It keeps showing up.
A caregiver does the setup in a web dashboard. The person living with dementia only ever picks up a ringing phone.
Tell REMI who they are
A guided walkthrough captures names, family, work, hobbies, conversation pace — and the topics to steer away from.
Add their life stories
The places, people and moments that matter. REMI draws on them so the conversation is about their life, not small talk.
REMI calls or texts
A real phone call on their own landline or cell, or a text thread if that suits them better. Nothing to install or log into.
You see what happened
Full transcripts, session history and how the conversation went — so you can pick up the thread on your next visit.
For caregivers
Built for the person who is already doing too much.
Uses the phone they already answer
Voice calls or SMS over a normal phone number. No tablet to charge, no app to update, no screen to learn.
It remembers between calls
A rolling summary plus a verified biography means today's call continues last week's — not a cold introduction every time.
You stay in control of the memory
Anything REMI learns from a conversation waits for your review before it becomes part of what REMI knows. You approve, edit or discard.
Every word, on the record
Read the full transcript of any session, see how long they talked and how the conversation felt — a window into hours you weren't there for.
Paced to the person
Conversation speed, turn length and how much REMI leads all follow the profile you set — from early-stage chat to gentle, unhurried company.
Share the load
Invite a sibling, a spouse or a professional caregiver. Everyone caring for the same person sees the same picture.
Research & safeguards
A research project, held to research standards.
REMI is being developed as part of CALM-D at the Emory Center for Health in Aging. Its conversation guidelines were written for clinician review, and the whole system is designed around a simple boundary: REMI is company, not care.
If you are a clinician, researcher or care organization interested in the pilot, we would like to hear from you.
- Not a medical device. REMI does not diagnose, treat or give medical advice, and never discusses a diagnosis.
- Consent is recorded. A participant is only enrolled by a caregiver who confirms consent during onboarding.
- Access is scoped. Caregivers can see only the people they are linked to — enforced in the data layer, not just the interface.
- Topics to avoid are honored. Grief, a late spouse, a subject that distresses them — you name it once and REMI stays away from it.
- Nothing is hidden from you. Every conversation is reviewable in full, and any participant can be paused or removed at any time.
Curious whether REMI could help someone you care for?
REMI is in early development at Emory. The live demo is still in progress and isn't open for requests yet — it will be once testing wraps. In the meantime, tell us a little about your situation and we'll be in touch when there's something to show.
Demo access will open to caregivers and clinicians in a later phase of the pilot.