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Using technology in stroke rehabilitation is attractive. Devices such as robots or smartphones can help deliver evidence-based levels of practice intensity and automated feedback without additional labor costs. Currently, however, few technologies have been adopted into everyday rehabilitation.
This project aimed to identify stakeholder (therapists, patients, and caregivers) priorities for stroke rehabilitation technologies and to generate user-centered solutions for enhancing everyday adoption.
We invited stakeholders (n=60), comprising stroke survivors (20/60, 33%), therapists (20/60, 33%), caregivers, and technology developers (including researchers; 20/60, 33%), to attend 2 facilitated workshops. Workshop 1 was preceded by a national survey of stroke survivors and therapists (n=177) to generate an initial list of priorities. The subsequent workshop focused on identifying practical solutions to enhance adoption.
A total of 25 priorities were generated from the survey; these were reduced to 10 nonranked priorities through discussion, consensus activities, and voting at Workshop 1: access to technologies, ease of use, awareness of available technologies, technologies focused on function, supports self-management, user training, evidence of effectiveness, value for money, knowledgeable staff, and performance feedback. The second workshop provided recommendations for improving the adoption of technologies in stroke rehabilitation: an annual exhibition of commercially available and developing technologies, an online consumer-rating website of available technologies, and a user network to inspire and test new technologies.
The key outcomes from this series of stakeholder workshops provides a starting point for an integrated approach to promoting greater adoption of technologies in stroke rehabilitation. Bringing technology developers and users together to shape future and evaluate current technologies is critical to achieving evidence-based stroke rehabilitation.
Stroke has been a priority for the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland for the last 15 years. In that time, there has been a 21% decrease in incidence and a 41% improvement in survival rates [
There is good evidence that rehabilitation can improve recovery from stroke [
In response to this need, technology has been used to increase rehabilitation practice intensity [
A perceived mismatch between research and patient priorities for life after stroke motivated a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) that produced a list of agreed priorities for future research [
Our aim was to identify stakeholder priorities for stroke rehabilitation technologies using an adapted version of the James Lind Alliance approach to priority setting [
The objectives were (1) to gather stakeholder priorities for the development of technologies in stroke rehabilitation, (2) to produce a top 10 list of priorities through a process of consensus across stakeholders, and (3) to generate new ideas from stakeholders on ways to improve the adoption of technology in stroke rehabilitation.
To achieve our aim, we planned a consensus-building process that emulated the James Lind PSP [
Surveys were sent to stroke survivors, caregivers, and rehabilitation professionals working in stroke to generate a long list of priorities from the broad community. These surveys were distributed electronically and manually through professional (Scottish Allied Health Professions Forum) and patient support networks (CHSS) to reach as broad a population as possible. As the survey was designed with the single purpose of generating a long list of priorities, only 6 questions were posed. These included background information on the use of rehabilitation technologies and a request to state their perceived priorities for stroke rehabilitation technologies. A copy of the survey can be found in
Workshop 1 was located at a neutral (ie, not a hospital or university), city center venue with good public transport links and disabled access. The workshop lasted 7 hours with breaks for lunch and refreshments. Sixty delegates representing the three stakeholder groups (users, technology developers including researchers, and policymakers) attended the workshop. Delegates were recruited through general invitations sent out to members of the Scottish Allied Health Professions Forum (therapists), CHSS patient networks (patients and caregivers), and individuals known to the committee as being active and experienced in this area (policymakers, researchers, and technology developers). The final delegate list was agreed upon by the organizing committee to ensure an even proportion from each group. Delegates were placed at 7 tables so that each table had at least 2 individuals from each of the stakeholder groups and a facilitator. Facilitators experienced in working with stroke survivors and therapists were supplied by CHSS.
The workshop included presentations of different models of rehabilitation provision including community therapy delivered according to the current NHS model, private rehabilitation delivered in the patient’s home, and a third sector (charitable organization) service based around a gym and activity center, which made use of technologies such as virtual reality. There were also short demonstrations of rehabilitation technologies designed for mobility and communication impairments. These presentations and demonstrations were intended to help participants engage with the subject matter and were arranged by the organizing committee. After these presentations, the long list of priorities (n=25) generated by the survey were graphically presented to the group and placed as individual pieces of paper, in no particular order, on each table. The short-listing process consisted of each table reducing their list from 25 to 15 priorities through consensus discussions, which they subsequently presented and justified to the whole group for broader discussion.
A final selection of 10 priorities was then agreed through discussion by the whole group with a consensus on the inclusion of each priority reached by voting (raising a colored card for yes and no).
The following priorities were agreed at the end of the workshop. A short description is appended to each priority because the group felt that these clarifications were important to avoid ambiguity. They were initially ranked (based on the group vote) in the order set below. However, the workshop delegates requested the list should not be ranked, as the level of priority may differ according to the context and role of the individual, but they were happy that these were the 10 most important priorities. To encapsulate this lack of hierarchy, the final list was expressed as a circle (
The priorities for rehabilitation technology were as follows:
The second workshop took place in a neighboring city to broaden the stakeholder representation. Delegates (n=60) were recruited in the same manner as Workshop 1, with the organizing committee again deciding on the final delegate list to ensure an even distribution across the three stakeholder groups (users, technology developers, and policymakers). It is worth noting that 40 of the delegates attended Workshop 1. This was a deliberate decision to maintain some consistency. The aim of this workshop was to develop practical ideas for improving technology adoption considering the outcomes from the first workshop. To facilitate discussion, innovative rehabilitation practices (both models and use of technologies) were presented by local (Scotland and United Kingdom) and international (Italy and the Netherlands) speakers. The structure of the workshop, including presentation topics and speakers, was agreed by the organizing committee.
Top ten priority circle.
Following these presentations, delegates were organized into 7 tables of approximately 8 individuals with a mix of backgrounds (as per Workshop 1) to discuss the following question: “What practical steps could be taken to progress the aim of improving adoption of stroke rehabilitation technologies?”
The discussions from each table were summarized by a facilitator and presented to the whole group for further discussion. This process continued until clear outcomes, with consensus from the whole group, emerged. An agreement was finally reached on three practical steps to promote greater adoption of technologies in stroke rehabilitation: (1) an annual exhibition of rehabilitation technologies for all stakeholders, (2) formation of a network consisting of users, technology developers, and policymakers with the ambition of creating a road map for rehabilitation technologies, and (3) development of a consumer rater website inspired by websites such as TripAdvisor with the objectives of enhancing awareness of rehabilitation technologies, providing clear access to available research findings on the efficacy of these technologies, and allowing consumers to rate technologies on key attributes such as ease of use, value for money, and provision of feedback.
By providing the means to increase engagement with rehabilitation, technology has been shown to improve outcomes after stroke [
The 10 priorities identified by users through our survey and consensus workshops were similar to those reported by Hughes et al [
The use of facilitated workshops to develop a consensus among stakeholders was the strength of our approach since it provided the opportunity for broad face-to-face discussions among individuals with real and often contrasting experiences of using rehabilitation technologies. This open discourse was deemed necessary to reveal the range of factors involved and has been used successfully in similar priority setting exercises [
The limitations of our study are similar to other approaches that depend on engagement with users, namely that the users responding to the survey and attending the workshops may not be typical of the entire user group in that they are likely to have a pre-existing interest in the area. Furthermore, there may be some social desirability bias, particularly from arranging therapists and patients around the same table [
A series of workshops and surveys focusing on the adoption of technologies in stroke rehabilitation identified 10 key priorities by users (access to equipment, ease of use, awareness, functional, supported self-management, training, evidence of effectiveness, value for money, knowledgeable staff, and feedback). To improve adoption, practical steps including organization of an annual rehabilitation technology exhibition, formation of a network consisting of users, technology developers, and policymakers, and development of a consumer rater website were recommended.
Survey questions for stroke survivors, carers, and therapists.
Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland
National Health Service
Priority Setting Partnership
We would like to acknowledge the Scottish Universities Insight Institute for funding this work and CHSS for the support in providing facilitators and helping to distribute the survey and workshop invitations.