Use of an IC Recorder as a voice output memory aid for patients with prospective memory impairment

This study evaluated the use of an IC Recorder as a voice output memory aid for patients with prospective memory impairment. The IC Recorder can output about 300 previously recorded messages at programmed times. The spoken messages prompted various daily tasks for eight patients with acquired memory impairments. One of these tasks, such as diary writing, or a letter-writing exercise was selected for each patient as a main task, and its completion was logged. These completion data demonstrated that the messages output by the IC Recorder were highly effective in prompting the main tasks for five of the eight patients. This study suggests that the IC Recorder has great potential as a voice output memory aid to assist patients with prospective memory impairment.