Self-management Programs Within Rehabilitation Yield Positive Health Outcomes at a Small Increased Cost Compared With Usual Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if self-management programs, supported by a health professional, in rehabilitation are cost effective. DATA SOURCES: Six databases were searched until December 2023. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials with adults completing a supported self-management program while participating in rehabilitation or receiving health professional input in the hospital or community settings were included. Self-management programs were completed outside the structured, supervised therapy and health professional sessions. Included trials had a cost measure and an effectiveness outcome reported, such as health-related quality of life or function. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations was used to determine the certainty of evidence across trials included in each meta-analysis. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated based on the mean difference from the meta-analyses of contributing health care costs and quality of life. DATA EXTRACTION: After application of the search strategy, two independent reviewers determined eligibility of identified literature, initially by reviewing the title and/or abstract before full-text review. Using a customized form, data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer. DATA SYNTHESIS: Forty-three trials were included, and 27 had data included in meta-analyses. Where self-management was a primary intervention, there was moderate certainty of a meaningful positive difference in quality-of-life utility index of 0.03 units (95% confidence interval, 0.01-0.06). The cost difference between self-management as the primary intervention and usual care (comprising usual intervention/therapy, minimal intervention [including education only], or no intervention) potentially favored the comparison group (mean difference=Australian dollar [AUD]90; 95% confidence interval, -AUD130 to AUD310). The cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained for self-management programs as a stand-alone intervention was AUD3000, which was below the acceptable willingness-to-pay threshold in Australia per QALY gained (AUD50,000/QALY gained). CONCLUSIONS: Self-management as an intervention is low cost and could improve health-related quality of life.

Barriers and facilitators to implementing self-directed therapy activities in inpatient rehabilitation settings.

BACKGROUND: Self-directed therapy activities are not currently part of routine care during inpatient rehabilitation. Understanding patient and clinician perspectives on self-directed therapy is key to increasing implementation. The aim of this study was to investigate barriers and facilitators to implementing a self-directed therapy programme ("My Therapy") in adult inpatient rehabilitation settings. METHODS: My Therapy was recommended by physiotherapists and occupational therapists and completed by rehabilitation inpatients independently, outside of supervised therapy sessions. Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and patients were invited to complete an online questionnaire comprising open-ended questions on barriers and facilitators to prescribing and participating in My Therapy. A directed content analysis of free-text responses was undertaken, with data coded using categories of the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation Model of Behaviour (COM-B model). RESULTS: Eleven patients and 20 clinicians completed the questionnaire. Patient capability was reported to be facilitated by comprehensive education by clinicians, with mixed attitudes towards the format of the programme booklet. Clinician capability was facilitated by staff collaboration. One benefit was the better use of downtime between the supervised therapy sessions, but opportunities for patients to engage in self-directed therapy were compromised by the lack of space to complete the programme. Clinician opportunity was reported to be provided via organisational support but workload was a reported barrier. Patient motivation to engage in self-directed therapy was reported to be fostered by feeling empowered, engaged, and encouraged to participate. Clinician motivation was associated with belief in the value of the programme. CONCLUSION: Despite some barriers to rehabilitation patients independently practicing therapeutic exercises and activities outside of supervised sessions, both clinicians and patients agreed it should be considered as routine practice. To do this, patient time, ward space, and staff collaboration are required. Further research is needed to scale-up the implementation of the My Therapy programme and evaluate its effectiveness.

Progressive Transition From Supervised to Unsupervised Robot-Assisted Therapy After Stroke: Protocol for a Single-Group, Interventional Feasibility Study.

BACKGROUND: Increasing the dose of therapy delivered to patients with stroke may improve functional outcomes and quality of life. Unsupervised technology-assisted rehabilitation is a promising way to increase the dose of therapy without dramatically increasing the burden on the health care system. Despite the many existing technologies for unsupervised rehabilitation, active rehabilitation robots have rarely been tested in a fully unsupervised way. Furthermore, the outcomes of unsupervised technology-assisted therapy (eg, feasibility, acceptance, and increase in therapy dose) vary widely. This might be due to the use of different technologies as well as to the broad range of methods applied to teach the patients how to independently train with a technology. OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the study design of a clinical study investigating the feasibility of unsupervised therapy with an active robot and of a systematic approach for the progressive transition from supervised to unsupervised use of a rehabilitation technology in a clinical setting. The effect of unsupervised therapy on achievable therapy dose, user experience in this therapy setting, and the usability of the rehabilitation technology are also evaluated. METHODS: Participants of the clinical study are inpatients of a rehabilitation clinic with subacute stroke undergoing a 4-week intervention where they train with a hand rehabilitation robot. The first week of the intervention is supervised by a therapist, who teaches participants how to interact and train with the device. The second week consists of minimally supervised therapy, where the therapist is present but intervenes only if needed as participants exercise with the device. If the participants properly learn how to train with the device, they proceed to the unsupervised phase and train without any supervision during the third and fourth weeks. Throughout the duration of the study, data on feasibility and therapy dose (ie, duration and repetitions) are collected. Usability and user experience are evaluated at the end of the second (ie, minimally supervised) and fourth (ie, unsupervised) weeks, allowing us to investigate the effect of therapist absence. RESULTS: As of April 2023, 13 patients were recruited and completed the protocol, with no reported adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: This study will inform on the feasibility of fully unsupervised rehabilitation with an active rehabilitation robot in a clinical setting and its effect on therapy dose. Furthermore, if successful, the proposed systematic approach for a progressive transition from supervised to unsupervised technology-assisted rehabilitation could serve as a benchmark to allow for easier comparisons between different technologies. This approach could also be extended to the application of such technologies in the home environment, as the supervised and minimally supervised sessions could be performed in the clinic, followed by unsupervised therapy at home after discharge. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04388891; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04388891. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/48485.

Towards a Platform for Robot-Assisted Minimally-Supervised Therapy of Hand Function: Design and Pilot Usability Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Robot-assisted therapy can increase therapy dose after stroke, which is often considered insufficient in clinical practice and after discharge, especially with respect to hand function. Thus far, there has been a focus on rather complex systems that require therapist supervision. To better exploit the potential of robot-assisted therapy, we propose a platform designed for minimal therapist supervision, and present the preliminary evaluation of its immediate usability, one of the main and frequently neglected challenges for real-world application. Such an approach could help increase therapy dose by allowing the training of multiple patients in parallel by a single therapist, as well as independent training in the clinic or at home. METHODS: We implemented design changes on a hand rehabilitation robot, considering aspects relevant to enabling minimally-supervised therapy, such as new physical/graphical user interfaces and two functional therapy exercises to train hand motor coordination, somatosensation and memory. Ten participants with chronic stroke assessed the usability of the platform and reported the perceived workload during a single therapy session with minimal supervision. The ability to independently use the platform was evaluated with a checklist. RESULTS: Participants were able to independently perform the therapy session after a short familiarization period, requiring assistance in only 13.46 (7.69-19.23)% of the tasks. They assigned good-to-excellent scores on the System Usability Scale to the user-interface and the exercises [85.00 (75.63-86.88) and 73.75 (63.13-83.75) out of 100, respectively]. Nine participants stated that they would use the platform frequently. Perceived workloads lay within desired workload bands. Object grasping with simultaneous control of forearm pronosupination and stiffness discrimination were identified as the most difficult tasks. DISCUSSION: Our findings demonstrate that a robot-assisted therapy device can be rendered safely and intuitively usable upon first exposure with minimal supervision through compliance with usability and perceived workload requirements. The preliminary usability evaluation identified usability challenges that should be solved to allow real-world minimally-supervised use. Such a platform could complement conventional therapy, allowing to provide increased dose with the available resources, and establish a continuum of care that progressively increases therapy lead of the patient from the clinic to the home.

Wearable Therapy - Detecting Information from Wearables and Mobiles that are Relevant to Clinical and Self-directed Therapy.

BACKGROUND: This accompanying editorial provides a brief introduction into the focus theme "Wearable Therapy". OBJECTIVES: The focus theme "Wearable Therapy" aims to present contributions which target wearable and mobile technologies to support clinical and self-directed therapy. METHODS: A call for papers was announced to all participants of the "9th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare" and was published in November 2015. A peer review process was conducted to select the papers for the focus theme. RESULTS: Six papers were selected to be included in this focus theme. The paper topics cover a broad range including an approach to build a health informatics research program, a comprehensive literature review of self-quantification for health self-management, methods for affective state detection of informal care givers, social-aware handling of falls, smart shoes for supporting self-directed therapy of alcohol addicts, and reference information model for pervasive health systems. CONCLUSIONS: More empirical evidence is needed that confirms sustainable effects of employing wearable and mobile technology for clinical and self-directed therapy. Inconsistencies between different conceptual approaches need to be revealed in order to enable more systematic investigations and comparisons.

Therapeutic elements in a self-management approach: experiences from group participation among people suffering from chronic pain.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic pain is a complex, multifaceted subjective experience that involves the whole person. Self-management is the dynamic and continuous process of adapting one's situation to the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional responses necessary to maintain a satisfactory quality of life. Approaches based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are described as appropriate in assisting people suffering from chronic pain because they challenge maladaptive beliefs and behaviors in relation to pain. This study aimed to explore patients' experiences of therapeutic elements from group participation in a chronic pain management program. METHODS: A qualitative research design with a phenomenological hermeneutic approach was used. Six months after participation in the 8-week course, 34 participants formulated and submitted written reports based on open-ended questions related to their group participation and self-help achievement. These reports were analyzed by elements of qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: THE ANALYSIS RESULTED IN TWO SUBTHEMES: "The significance of active involvement in gaining new insight" and "The significance of community and group support." These were abstracted in the main theme: "Successful self-management is related to several significant contributions in the group." CONCLUSION: An active role with writing, self-revelation, and exchanges of thoughts and feelings in the group seemed to be the key tools for success. In addition, group support and access to other group members' experiences were significant therapeutic elements. We suggest that successful self-management requires knowledge of essential therapeutic elements. In a CBT-based group approach, such elements may offer an important health care contribution.