Before my dad died from dementia, I built him a mock checkout platform to avoid huge purchases

Nikki Elbaz (left) and Hanna Miller (right) co-created ShieldCart after Miller's father developed dementia.

ShieldCart Hanna Miller and Nikki Elbaz created ShieldCart to aid Miller's father with dementia.

ShieldCart uses AI to simulate checkouts, allowing older users to shop without financial harm.

Miller and Elbaz aim to expand ShieldCart, helping more families manage dementia-related challenges.

Everyone in Hanna Miller's family knew her father as a giving and generous person.

But as his dementia progressed , he couldn't recall that he'd already ordered something online just a few hours earlier.

Gifts, like toys for the grandkids, piled up so quickly he couldn't easily pay for them.

Watching his decline was heartbreaking.

Miller's father was a biomathematics Ph.D. who spent his career in pharmaceuticals, living abroad but visiting often, always with suitcases full of presents.

Whenever his grandchildren called to ask what he was doing, he would answer, "Sitting and waiting for you." But as the dementia worsened, his online shopping habits became more than an annoyance — he would repeatedly order food, and the expenses began to outweigh his modest Social Security and pension income, which covered only rent and basic living expenses.

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Miller knew she had to intervene, but wasn't sure how.

Her sister had power of attorney as her father's caregiver, so they worked together to cancel his online orders and replace his credit cards with a debit card.

This not only upset him and led to repeated conflicts, but forced Miller to grapple with ethical questions about parenting her own father so strictly.