Participation of end users in the design of assistive technology for people with mild to severe cognitive problems; the European Rosetta project.

BACKGROUND: In the European Rosetta project three separate, previously developed, ICT systems were improved and integrated to create one modular system that helps community-dwelling people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia in different stages of the disease. The system aims to support them in daily functioning, monitor (deviations from) patterns in daily behaviour and to automatically detect emergency situations. The study aimed to inventory the end users' needs and wishes regarding the development and design of the new integrated Rosetta system, and to describe the to be developed Rosetta system. METHODS: Qualitative user-participatory design with in total 50 persons: 14 people with dementia, 13 informal carers, 6 professional carers, 9 dementia experts, 7 care partners within the project, and 1 volunteer. In the Netherlands user focus group sessions were performed and in Germany individual interviews. Dementia experts were consulted by means of a questionnaire, an expert meeting session, and interviews. RESULTS: Persons with dementia and informal carers appreciated the following functionalities most: help in cases of emergencies, navigation support and the calendar function. Dementia experts rated various behaviours relevant to monitor in order to detect timely changes in functioning, e.g. eating, drinking, going to the toilet, taking medicine adequately, performance of activities and sleep patterns. No ethical issues regarding the use of sensors and cameras were mentioned. CONCLUSION: The user participatory design resulted in valuable input from persons with dementia, informal carers and professional carers/dementia experts, based on which a first prototype Rosetta system was built.

The electronic, personalizable Rosetta system for dementia care: exploring the user-friendliness, usefulness and impact.

PURPOSE: This research aimed to integrate three previously developed assistive technology (AT) systems into one modular, multifunctional system, which can support people with dementia and carers throughout the course of dementia. . In an explorative evaluation study, the integrated system, called Rosetta, was tested on usefulness, user-friendliness and impact, in people with dementia, their informal carers and professional carers involved. The Rosetta system was installed in participants' homes in three countries: The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. METHODS: Controlled trial with pre- and post-test measures across three countries (randomized controlled trial in Germany; matched groups in the Netherlands and Belgium). Participants completed questionnaires for impact measurement and participated in semi-structured interviews regarding usefulness and user-friendliness of Rosetta. RESULTS: All participants agreed that Rosetta is a very useful development. They did not rate the user-friendliness of the system highly. No significant effects were found on impact measurements. CONCLUSION: All participants found Rosetta a very useful development for future care, and would consider using it. Since Rosetta was still in development during evaluation, a discrepancy between expectations and actual functioning of Rosetta existed, which may explain the lack of findings on the impact of the system and the low appreciation of user-friendliness. Implications for Rehabilitation People with dementia and carers find assistive technology (AT) a useful future development and they are willing to use it in the future. People with dementia and carers have little privacy issues with AT. If they have concerns, they are willing to accept the trade-off of reduced privacy in exchange for the ability to live in their own homes for longer. Given that a system works flawlessly, informal carers indicate that integrated AT can reduce their burden and stress. This can in turn help informal carers to provide better care for a longer period of time.