The Provision of Feedback in Community Stroke Rehabilitation: The Therapists’ Perspective

Dr Jack Parker, Prof Gail Mountain and Prof Sue Mawson have had their research article published:

Parker J, Mountain G and Mawson S. The Provision of Feedback in Community Stroke Rehabilitation: The Therapists’ Perspective. Phys Med Rehabil Int. 2015; 2(3): 1040.

This paper explores the clinical reasoning and decision making (CRDM) underpinning the provision of feedback during community-based post-stroke rehabilitation by gaining the perspectives of Community Stroke Teams. 

In accordance with the ICF model, data suggest the CRDM when providing feedback for stroke rehabilitation in the community is underpinned by the medical, social and contextual components of health. However, how therapists control the rehabilitation process; what they include and who they include is often led by the therapist. This learning experience may impact on further rehabilitation experience(s) or contemporary models of care delivery; such as, autonomous rehabilitation using technology. 

Recent paper published!

Dr Jack Parker and colleagues of the RAT group are pleased to announce their latest publication,

‘Stroke patient’s utilisation of extrinsic feedback form computer-based technology in the home: a multiple case study realistic evaluation’

This paper describes Dr Jack Parker’s PhD programme of research exploring the use of feedback provided by the SMART Rehabilitation Technology System used as part of the SMART 1 project and in particular, how feedback provided by the system has the potential to promote self-managed post-stroke rehabilitation within the context of the home.

This open access paper is free to download and can be found at:

Parker et al, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2014, 14:46.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/14/46

 

SMART COPD project - brand new video

The SMART (Self Management supported by Assistive Rehabilitation and Telehealth Technologies) consortium develops technologies to help people to self-manage their long term conditions. 

The film below shows SMART researchers working with patients, family members, clinicians and healthcare professionals to design a mobile based technology to help Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients self-manager their condition effectively.

For further details on the SMART Consortium, you can visit their website.
The SMART consortum has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) and the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for South Yorkshire.

New video about the SMART Stroke project

The SMART (Self Management supported by Assistive, Rehabilitation and Telehealth Technologies) Consortium has developed technologies that help enable people to manage their long term health conditions. 

The video focuses on how the SMART Stroke Project has developed a system to help people during their stroke rehabilitation.The system uses a "smart shoe" that provides patients with feedback and other information that is important for their recovery e.g. weight distribution and heel-toe strikes. Professor Sue Mawson leads this project and the technology was developed by Kinematix. 

The SMART Consortium has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for South Yorkshire. For further information please visit the SMART Consortium's website.

This video has now moved. Please click here to view it at it's new location.

CLAHRC Project SMART2 hits the headlines!

Monday’s issue of the Star featured an article on research investigating the cutting edge technology that is, the SMART shoe. This measures weight distribution and heel strike pressure, both of which can lead to falls in stroke patients. The feedback provided by the “SMART shoe” can inform a physiotherapist to provide tailored exercises to the individual to help improve their balance.The article discusses the shoe in more detail. More information on the project can be found via this website.

The article can be found in Monday’s (11.11.2013) Star or via this link.

Star Image of SMART Shoe

Star image: Dr Jack Parker with SMART2 participant, Bob Barwell and his carer Brenda.

SMART 2 Stroke: Two New Publications

Professor Sue Mawson, Dr Jack Parker and colleagues working on the SMART stroke Personalised Self-management Rehabilitation System (PSMrS) have had two papers published in Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology.

 

These papers describe the development of the PSMrS and the feedback screen to promote self-managed post-stroke rehabilitation in the home. 

The full references for these are:

Mawson S, Nasrin N, Parker J, Zheng H, Davies R, and Mountain, G (2013) Developing a personalisedself-management system for post stroke rehabilitation; utilising a user-centreddesign methodology. Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol, Early Online: 1–8

Parker J, Mawson S, Mountain G, Nasrin N, Davies R and Zheng H (2013) The provision of feedbackthrough computer-based technology to promote self-managed post-strokerehabilitation in the home. Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol, Early Online: 1–10.

RAT group seminar on Agile Software Development

Dr Jochen Farwer

This week provided an opportunity for the RAT group to learn more about Agile Software Development. This is a method that has, at its centre, user-requirement gathering and an iterative process of development with the aim of creating a quality, flexible product that will be able to adapt and fulfil user needs which is so central to the research in the RAT group.

The seminar was given by Dr Jochen Farwer, who currently works on the SMART2 project and was well attended by both technical and non-technical members of the group. It highlighted some of the key issues of working in interdisciplinary teams to build technology and it is hoped that some of the key features of this process will be implemented in current and future technology projects.

Dr Nasrin Nasr interviewed on SMART stroke system

Dr Nasrin Nasr has been interviewed for a programme "Women in Science" for a series aimed at health and well-being for South Leeds Community Radio (Al Garthwaite (interviewer) and Suzi Hoffmann (editor)).

Nasrin was talking about Self-management and home-based rehabilitation programmes in general and the SMART consortium's Personalised Self-Management System in particular which helps people who have had a stroke to manage their own condition at home using a computer interface. She discussed how people could use life goals to help them rehabilitate themselves using personalised exercises and feeding back information on their progress.

Listen to the interview below to find out more about the system.

TaCT theme team present telehealth research at Rotherham Hospital lunchtime lecture series

On Friday 15^th February, Dr Alison Orrell, Dr Jack Parker, Claire Bentley and Lauren Powell presented at the Rotherham Hospital lunchtime lecture series. They introduced the Telehealth and Care technologies (TaCT) theme of the South Yorkshire Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) and discussed some research that is being conducted within the group.

 Dr Alison Orrell began the meeting by introducing what Telehealth is, where it can be most useful and who can benefit from it. Claire Bentley then talked about the “square peg, round hole” problem with adopting a Randomised Controlled Trial methodology when testing aspects of telehealth. Dr Jack Parker then introduced the SMART Rehabilitation Technology System. This is a system that is used in rehabilitation with Stroke patients. Lastly, Lauren Powell introduced the “Ready Steady Go” Telehealth Implementation Toolkit (Brownsell and Ellis, 2012) and the research, which aims to test the validation and usability of the toolkit.  The “Ready Steady Go” Toolkit can be downloaded via the following website: http://www.clahrc-sy.nihr.ac.uk/images/resources/RSG-Toolkit.pdf

Lauren also announced that we are currently recruiting individuals, NHS or otherwise, with a background or a knowledge of telehealth. Participants do not have to be experts and would only be asked to participate in a telephone interview, at their convenience, that lasts up to 45 minutes. Volunteers are still welcome and are encouraged to call Lauren if they would like further details. 

Lauren Powell (Research Assistant): Tel: 0114 222 8275 Email: l.a.powell@sheffield.ac.uk

[written by Lauren Powell]

RAT group projects recognised by the Department of Health

The Department of Health has published its annual report on research and development work relating to assistive technology, and many projects based in the Rehabilitation and Assitive Technology group are recognised as examples of leading research in the field.

The report is available via the Department of Health website (pdf link - Adobe Reader required) and contains features on CACTUS, SMART2, and TACT3 as well as a list of all our projects.

Visiting the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology research group

I’m a PhD student at Western University (in London, Canada) in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and for the last two weeks I’ve been visiting the RAT group at the University of Sheffield to learn more about the use of technologies for managing chronic illness. As a student at Western, I’m part of the Healthy Ageing team in the Ageing, Rehabilitation and Geriatric Care (ARGC) Research Centre with the Lawson Health Research Institute. Some of the research we do uses exercise prescription, behavioural counselling, and self-directed health technologies for remote patient monitoring in an effort to promote healthy living behaviours and prevent or manage disease progression. For the most part, these technologies are relatively simple and accessible devices, such as smartphones and Bluetooth-enabled peripheral devices like blood pressure monitors, glucometers, pedometers, and weigh scales. This research is carried out in rural and urban centres in collaboration with other research teams at Western, and is also part of an international consortium with research teams in Finland.

It’s been great to have this opportunity to visit the University of Sheffield and learn, hands-on, about some of the technologies that are being developed for patient self-management of chronic illness as part of the SMART2 project. I think there are many exciting applications for technologies (like SMART2) to be implemented in health service delivery and improve patient care for chronic disease as well as lifestyle-related conditions (such as stroke rehabilitation, heart failure, diabetes and obesity). And I would even speculate that capitalising on personalised self-management programs like the ones included in the SMART2 will help ease the burden on the health care system and improve quality of care and quality of life for patients living with chronic illness.

Thank you to the RAT group for opening your doors and sharing your insights with me during my visit!

[written by Emily Knight]