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Lone Tree, Colo., Firm Making Multimedia Products to Help Alzheimer's Patients

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 December 2004, 12:00 CST

Dec. 5--LONE TREE, Colo. -- Schoolteacher-turned-entrepreneur Julie Aigner-Clark created a sensation with Baby Einstein Co., creating multimedia learning tools for very young children. She sold the company to Disney for a reported $25 million in 2001.

Three years later, Aigner-Clark is targeting the other end of the age spectrum. She's the creative force and money behind Lone Tree-based Memory Lane Co., which is producing multimedia products designed to stimulate and entertain Alzheimer's patients.

"It's the incubating of a business, and that's what I'm good at," said Aigner-Clark, 38, who survived a battle with breast cancer this year. "It's nice to start something organic and fresh."

Privately held Memory Lane is offering videos first -- and later books and music CDs -- aimed at the estimated 4.5 million people with Alzheimer's disease in the U.S.

In the company's first video, "Family," an on-screen "companion" takes the viewer on a nostalgic trip through the milestones of generic family life, including marriage, children, holidays and graduation. The video is currently only available online for $24.98, with plans to offer it in retail outlets sometime next year.

Two observers say the market for such products will grow but question the premise of Memory Lane videos.

"There's a huge market and entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how" to capitalize on it, said Dr. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center on Aging.

He called the videos an "interesting concept" but added "the risk is (the videos) will fall flat" without personalized information.

Memory Lane officials say that its books due out in 2005 allow for personalization with pictures and text.

Cheryl Dunaway, vice president of programs for the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, said that simply playing music CDs or renting movie classics of people dancing would work.

"Our reaction is we are pleased there is another option to help (patients) in a structured way -- but tools don't have to come in a package," she said.

Dunaway acknowledged that the market "will definitely expand because we have an aging population," and people are more attuned to the impact of Alzheimer's.

An estimated three-quarters of Alzheimer's patients live at home, with family and friends as primary caregivers. By occupying the attention of Alzheimer's patients, the media products are also intended to give those caregivers a break.

Competitors to Memory Lane include Lake Solitude Media and videos offered at ActivityTherapy.com, both of which use soothing sounds and nature scenes to calm Alzheimer's patients.

Aigner-Clark claims that what differentiates Memory Lane products is that it simplifies and synchronizes music and visuals and plot in a way that doesn't confuse viewers who have Alzheimer's.

The company's vice president, Brian Raffety, has a Ph.D. in psychology and "has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop interactive learning environments for caregiver training," according to the company's website, www.memorylanemedia.com.

Like Baby Einstein, Memory Lane targets a specialized demographic, one that could grow to about 6.5 million patients by 2025, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

The core team behind Memory Lane is the same as with Baby Einstein. Bill Clark, the husband of Aigner-Clark and co-founder of Baby Einstein, oversees product development at the new company. Aigner-Clark's title is creative consultant.

Jeff Mettais, the former marketing director of Baby Einstein, is Memory Lane's chief executive.

"This market is virtually wide open," said Mettais, whose grandmother suffers from dementia. "It's a niche market, and we are trying to build it on a grassroots level."

Aigner-Clark is also producing videos for another new company, The Safe Side, that are designed to empower kids to stay safe in a variety of situations, from fire safety to dealing with strangers.

The timing is ideal, she said, noting that her two children, Aspen, 10, and Sierra, 7, are at an age where the video's lessons could be lifesavers.

She still consults and performs voice-overs for Baby Einstein videos. The brand, which Disney plasters on everything from clothes to party supplies to toys, racked up $165 million in sales last year, up from $20 million when she sold it.

In January, Aigner-Clark will deliver a speech to students at Harvard Business School about her career and her business strategies, an event she is nervous about.

"My husband keeps telling me, 'You have what they (the students) want,'" she said. "Who would have thought a stay-at-home mom and former teacher would be giving advice to Harvard MBAs?"

THE NUMBERS

--People with Alzheimer's disease: 4.5 million

--People with related dementia: 4 million

--People in Colorado with Alzheimer's: 65,000

--By 2050: 16 million

--Average lifetime cost of care for patient: $170,000

--Medicare costs for beneficiaries in 2000: $31.9 billion

--Projected Medicare costs in 2010: $49.3 billion, an increase of 54.5 percent.

Source: Alzheimer's Association

LONE TREE, Colo. -- CANCER DIAGNOSIS MOTIVATES EXECUTIVE: When Julie Aigner-Clark, the brains behind the wildly successful Baby Einstein Co., felt a tiny lump in her left breast in late February, she was unfazed.

A mammogram eight months earlier had come back clear, so without hesitation, Aigner-Clark, 38, left for a weekend conference in Florida where she was a featured speaker.

When she returned, she again noticed the knot and decided to schedule an appointment with her doctor.

She used a felt-tip pen to mark the lump because it was so small, "I wasn't sure if I'd find it again." A mammogram that day raised a red flag, and a biopsy a day later provided the diagnosis: breast cancer.

"I was horrified, shocked and stunned," she said. "My head was spinning."

Even more, the lump's cell structure appeared potentially aggressive. In an effort to calm her fears, she purchased cycling star Lance Armstrong's book, "It's Not About the Bike," which details his fight against and recovery from testicular cancer.

She said her husband, Bill, 53, was steady and supportive during the life-threatening ordeal.

The mother of two gathered information about the disease and made a decision 10 days later: She would undergo a double mastectomy.

"I'm decisive, and I act quickly," she said, explaining the rationale for removing both breasts, a procedure that some medical experts deem radical.

She had the surgery to reduce the chance of the disease reappearing, she said.

She avoided chemotherapy and, so far, the disease has not returned. In March, she underwent reconstructive surgery to replace her breasts.

Today, she says the disease "was in some ways a gift.""You appreciate everything now. You go, 'Wow, it's snowing.'" For the Michigan native who began her business career with $15,000 and a hand-held camcorder in her Georgia basement in 1996 -- and later built Baby Einstein into a company bought by Disney for $25 million in 2001 -- life feels like "the most wonderful dream." With some fragile moments.

"They say you are never really cured. But I feel good and I feel healthy. We'll see."

--Will Shanley

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DIS,

Source: The Denver Post

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