Abstract
Background
Advancements
in wearable technology have created new opportunities to monitor stroke
survivors’ behaviors in daily activities. Research insights are needed
to guide its adoption in clinical practice, address current gaps, and
shape the future of stroke rehabilitation. This project aims to: (1)
Understand stroke rehabilitation researchers’ perspectives on the
opportunities, challenges, and clinical relevance of wearable technology
for stroke rehabilitation, and (2) Identify necessary next steps to
integrate wearable technology in research and clinical practice.
Methods
Using
a phenomenological qualitative design, two 90-minute focus groups were
conducted with 12 rehabilitation researchers. The focus groups consisted
of semi-structured, open-ended questions on functional movement
behavior, motor performance and benefits and pitfalls of wearable
technology. The transcribed focus groups were analyzed using inductive
thematic analysis.
Results
Three
main themes were derived from the analysis: (1) Assessing activity
performance is critical to inform interventions, (2) The demonstrated
benefit is not commensurate with the added hassle, (3) Collaboration is
needed between the industry, academia and end-users. Necessary future
steps were recognized including the identification of intuitive and
actionable metrics, and the integration of sensor-derived data with
electronic health records and into clinical workflow to support
self-management strategies.
Conclusion
Wearable
technology shows great potential to complement and support stroke
rehabilitation. Many key barriers to clinical adoption remain(Well solve them! LEADERS WOULD SOLVE THEM! You're not leaders, are you?) which
underscore the necessity to foster collaborations between industry,
academia, and the participants we serve.
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