Lone Tree - 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 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

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?"