86th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology | Oct. 29 – 31, 2023 |London, United Kingdom. Author(s) retain copyright, but ASIS&T receives an exclusive publication license. ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2023 1 Submission Type Benefits and Challenges of Multidisciplinary and Multi-organizational Collaboration in Developing a mHealth Application for People with Dementia and Their Care Partners Park, Min Sook University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, U.S.A. | minsook@uwm.edu Oh, Chorong Ohio University, U.S.A. | ohc@ohio.edu Lee, Yura University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, U.S.A. | lee626@uwm.edu Bong, Ji Yae University of North Carolina at Charlotte | jbong@charlotte.edu Lee, Hyun Seung University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, U.S.A. | lee649@uwm.edu ABSTRACT This poster introduces the authors’ multidisciplinary and multi-organizational project which aims to develop a digital memory book application for people with dementia and their care partners. The project involves both research and the practical application of study findings, necessitating team collaboration across various disciplines. This poster introduces the project and discusses the importance, benefits, and challenges of the multidisciplinary endeavor. KEYWORDS Multidisciplinary collaboration, health informatics, mHelath, dementia, digital assistive technology, user-driven design INTRODUCTION This poster briefly discusses the benefits and challenges of the authors' multidisciplinary and multi-organizational collaborative project, which sets out to develop an integrated, evidence-based, and user-driven memory book application. This computer-based assistive technology (AT) is expected to improve communication quality between people with dementia (PwD) and their care partners. Researchers from various fields, including communication disorders, education technology, social work, and information studies affiliated with different universities, are participating in this project. While collaboration among researchers with different backgrounds provides an opportunity to unify expertise and research practices and leverage resources at different institutes, it also presents challenges. This poster outlines the project and discusses the challenges and benefits of digital AT development for PwD and their care partners through multidisciplinary collaboration. Background Longevity stands as a supreme achievement of the 20th century. However, alongside this increased lifespan, society faces significant challenges such as the growing population of individuals with dementia. Presently, over 55 million people worldwide are affected by dementia, with new cases increasing by nearly 10 million annually (World Health Organization [WHO], 2023). As dementia progresses in individuals, communication difficulties (e.g., in speaking or understanding) pose substantial challenges and common symptoms (Banovic et al., 2018). These difficulties not only create a care burden for care partners of people with dementia (PwD) along with other behavior and cognitive issues experienced by PwD (Georges et al., 2008). PwD care partners often find themselves needing to adopt a new way of communication (Banovic et al., 2018) with their loved ones. Due to advancements in communication and information technology (ICT), computer-based assistive technology (AT) has been devised to support PwD care partners. In particular, cognitive enhancement programs such as digital memory books offer the potential to enhance and elevate the quality of interactions between PwD and their care partners (Aitken, 2015; Hashim et al., 2015; Papastefanakis et al., 2011) including communication. To yield positive outcomes, addressing the specific needs of PwD and their care partners proves vital in developing an AT (Davies et al., 2020). However, ATs frequently tend to address general issues instead of tailoring their designs to cater to the unique needs of their intended users (Peterson et al., 2023). The amalgamation of diverse