George Washington University School of Nursing Professor and Center for Aging, Health and Humanities (CAHH) director, Melissa Batchelor has joined CareYaya Health Technologies, Inc. as a consultant on a newly funded NIH Small Business Innovation Research Phase I grant to develop the YayaGuide, an artificial intelligence-powered caregiver training platform for individuals caring for older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.The grant, titled “YayaGuide: AI-Enabled Personalized Training for Caregivers of Older Adults with ADRD” (1R43AG094339-01), was awarded by the National Institute on Aging. CareYaya, a Chapel Hill, NC-based technology company led by CEO and Co-founder Neal K. Shah, will use the Phase I funding to refine and scale an AI-driven micro-learning prototype into a near-final beta platform – with Batchelor contributing expert content, educational strategy, and existing curriculum from her AgeWiseU caregiver education platform.“Sixty-three million Americans are providing unpaid care to a family member – and 30% of them say they felt completely unprepared when they started, said Melissa Batchelor, professor and CAHH director, GW School of Nursing. “YayaGuide represents exactly the kind of innovation we need: AI that doesn’t replace the human connection in caregiving, but makes every caregiver more capable, confident, and supported.”A Critical Gap in Caregiver EducationMore than 6 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease, a number projected to reach 12.7 million by 2050. The financial burden exceeds $321 billion annually, with more than $271 billion in unpaid caregiving costs borne by families. Approximately 90% of community-dwelling adults with dementia depend on care from family members and other unpaid caregivers – yet most receive little to no formal training.

 

According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2024 annual report, 70% of caregivers reported difficulty arranging care, 66% struggled to find relevant resources, and 97% said they would benefit from services that help navigate dementia caregiving – underscoring both the urgency of the need and the gap in existing solutions.YayaGuide: AI-Driven, Personalized, and Built for Every GenerationYayaGuide is designed to address these barriers through a personalized micro-learning approach – breaking evidence-based dementia care content into bite-sized, interactive modules that adapt to each learner’s skill level, knowledge gaps, and pace. The platform’s AI-powered chatbot provides real-time, contextually aware feedback and remembers details about both the caregiver and care recipient, enabling personalized guidance without requiring users to repeat background information each session.Preliminary data from a pilot study of CareYaya student caregivers showed a 37.5% increase in confidence providing emotional support and a 35% increase in confidence assisting with activities of daily living following one week of engagement with the YayaGuide prototype. Participants also reported a 29.7% reduction in nervousness about upcoming caregiving sessions.Phase I will test and refine the platform with a cohort of 115 college-aged CareYaya caregivers followed by expanded testing across all age groups (ages 18 to 75+) including family caregivers and professional caregivers nationwide. A Phase II expansion is anticipated to introduce multilingual support, caregiver wellness content, health equity enhancements, and peer-to-peer learning features.

“We are thrilled to have Melissa Batchelor’s expertise and the evidence-based content from AgeWiseU as a foundation for YayaGuide, said Neal K. Shah, CEO & Co-Founder, CareYaya Health Technologies, Inc. “Her work, particularly on NOSH, the Nurses Optimizing Supportive Handfeeding program, represents exactly the kind of rigorously developed, practical caregiver education that AI can now help deliver at scale to families who need it most.”GW Nursing Expertise Meets Cutting-Edge AIAs a consultant on the NIH grant, Batchelor will contribute in multiple capacities: licensing existing AgeWiseU educational materials for integration into the YayaGuide platform, developing new high-quality video content tailored to dementia caregiving, providing subject matter expertise on evidence-based geriatric and dementia care practices, and advising on curriculum design and educational strategy throughout the platform’s development.AgeWiseU, Batchelor’s caregiver education platform, draws on content developed through her globally ranked podcast “This Is Getting Old: Moving Towards an Age-Friendly World” and her nearly 30 years of gerontological nursing and dementia care research. CareYaya has already begun adapting AgeWiseU content on supportive handfeeding in persons living with dementia, based on Batchelor’s NOSH (Nurses Optimizing Supportive Handfeeding) intervention research, for integration into an early YayaGuide module.Batchelor joins Co-Investigator Dr. Esther Oh, Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Memory and Alzheimer’s Treatment Center and the AI and Technology Collaboratory (AITC) for Aging Research, as part of the scientific advisory team on the project. George Washington University students are also actively engaged with CareYaya as part of the company’s growing caregiver workforce network.Part of a Broader Vision for AI in Aging CareThe YayaGuide collaboration builds on Batchelor’s broader research portfolio at the intersection of AI and aging. In February 2026, she submitted an NIH R21 grant as Principal Investigator, with GW Nursing Co-Investigators Laurie Theeke and Juh Hyun Shin, to study the impact of the Yaya Bear, CareYaya’s AI-powered social companion robot, on loneliness among older adults living in nursing homes. Together, these initiatives reflect a growing evidence base for AI-enabled tools in dementia care, caregiver support, and aging-in-place.Batchelor is the Director of the GW Center for Aging, Health and Humanities and serves as the host of the annual Age-Friendly Ecosystem Summit, which convenes researchers, policymakers, technologists, and community leaders to advance age-friendly innovation. Her work has been supported by more than $5 million in research funding.

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