TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kerr, Andrew
AU  - Grealy, Madeleine
AU  - Slachetka, Milena
AU  - Wodu, Chioma Obinuchi
AU  - Sweeney, Gillian
AU  - Boyd, Fiona
AU  - Colville, David
AU  - Rowe, Philip
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/8/23
TI  - A Participatory Model for Cocreating Accessible Rehabilitation Technology for Stroke Survivors: User-Centered Design Approach
JO  - JMIR Rehabil Assist Technol
SP  - e57227
VL  - 11
KW  - rehabilitation
KW  - rehabilitative
KW  - rehab
KW  - rehabilitation technology
KW  - accessibility
KW  - accessible
KW  - stroke
KW  - design
KW  - participatory
KW  - participatory design
KW  - participatory designs
KW  - participatory model
KW  - participatory models
KW  - user-centred
KW  - user-centered
KW  - user-focused
KW  - digital health
KW  - digital technology
KW  - digital intervention
KW  - digital interventions
KW  - participatory medicine
KW  - technology
AB  - Background: Globally, 1 in 3 people live with health conditions that could be improved with rehabilitation. Ideally, this is provided by trained professionals delivering evidence-based dose, intensity, and content of rehabilitation for optimal recovery. The widely acknowledged inability of global health care providers to deliver recommended levels of rehabilitation creates an opportunity for technological innovation. Design processes that lack close consideration of users’ needs and budgets, however, mean that many rehabilitation technologies are neither useful nor used. To address this problem, our multidisciplinary research group have established a cocreation center for rehabilitation technology that places the end user at the center of the innovation process. Objective: This study aims to present the participatory cocreation model that has been developed from our center and illustrate the approach with 2 cases studies. Methods: The model is built around user participation in an intensive rehabilitation program (2-hour sessions, 2‐5 times per week, and 8-week duration), supervised by qualified therapists but delivered exclusively through commercial and prototype technology. This provides participants (chronic stroke survivors with movement and/or speech disability) with a rich experience of rehabilitation technology, enabling them to provide truly informed feedback, as well as creating an observatory for the research team. This process is supported by short-term focus groups for specific product development and a longer-term advisory group to consider broader issues of adoption and translation into everyday health care. Results: Our model has been active for 3 years with 92 (92%) out of 100 participants completing the program. Five new technologies have evolved from the process with further ideas logged for future development. In addition, it has led to a set of cocreated protocols for technology-enriched rehabilitation, including recruitment, outcome measures, and intervention structure, which has allowed us to replicate this approach in an acute hospital ward. Conclusions: Suboptimal rehabilitation limits recovery from health conditions. Technology offers the potential support to increase access to recommended levels of rehabilitation but needs to be designed to suit end users and not just their impairment. Our cocreation model, built around participation in an intensive, technology-based program, has produced new accessible technology and demonstrated the feasibility of our overall approach to providing the rehabilitation that people need, for as long as needed. 
SN  - 2369-2529
UR  - https://rehab.jmir.org/2024/1/e57227
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/57227
DO  - 10.2196/57227
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/57227
ER  -