Digital Health Implementation Strategies Coproduced With Adults With Acquired Brain Injury, Their Close Others, and Clinicians: Mixed Methods Study With Collaborative Autoethnography and Network Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Acquired brain injuries (ABIs), such as stroke and traumatic brain injury, commonly cause cognitive-communication disorders, in which underlying cognitive difficulties also impair communication. As communication is an exchange with others, close others such as family and friends also experience the impact of cognitive-communication impairment. It is therefore an internationally recommended best practice for speech-language pathologists to provide communication support to both people with ABI and the people who communicate with them. Current research also identifies a need for neurorehabilitation professionals to support digital communication, such as social media use, after ABI. However, with >135 million people worldwide affected by ABI, alternate and supplementary service delivery models are needed to meet these communication needs. The "Social Brain Toolkit" is a novel suite of 3 interventions to deliver communication rehabilitation via the internet. However, digital health implementation is complex, and minimal guidance exists for ABI. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to support the implementation of the Social Brain Toolkit by coproducing implementation knowledge with people with ABI, people who communicate with people with ABI, clinicians, and leaders in digital health implementation. METHODS: A maximum variation sample (N=35) of individuals with living experience of ABI, close others, clinicians, and digital health implementation leaders participated in an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. Stakeholders quantitatively prioritized 4 of the 7 theoretical domains of the Nonadoption, Abandonment, Scale-up, Spread, and Sustainability (NASSS) framework as being the most important for Social Brain Toolkit implementation. Qualitative interview and focus group data collection focused on these 4 domains. Data were deductively analyzed against the NASSS framework with stakeholder coauthors to determine implementation considerations and strategies. A collaborative autoethnography of the research was conducted. Interrelationships between considerations and strategies were identified through a post hoc network analysis. RESULTS: Across the 4 prioritized domains of "condition," "technology," "value proposition," and "adopters," 48 digital health implementation considerations and 52 tailored developer and clinician implementation strategies were generated. Benefits and challenges of coproduction were identified. The post hoc network analysis revealed 172 unique relationships between the identified implementation considerations and strategies, with user and persona testing and responsive design identified as the potentially most impactful strategies. CONCLUSIONS: People with ABI, close others, clinicians, and digital health leaders coproduced new knowledge of digital health implementation considerations for adults with ABI and the people who communicate with them, as well as tailored implementation strategies. Complexity-informed network analyses offered a data-driven method to identify the 2 most potentially impactful strategies. Although the study was limited by a focus on 4 NASSS domains and the underrepresentation of certain demographics, the wealth of actionable implementation knowledge produced supports future coproduction of implementation research with mutually beneficial outcomes for stakeholders and researchers. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/35080.

Coproducing Knowledge of the Implementation of Complex Digital Health Interventions for Adults with Acquired Brain Injury and their Communication Partners: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: The Social Brain Toolkit, conceived and developed in partnership with stakeholders, is a novel suite of web-based communication interventions for people with brain injury and their communication partners. To support effective implementation, the developers of the Social Brain Toolkit have collaborated with people with brain injury, communication partners, clinicians, and individuals with digital health implementation experience to coproduce new implementation knowledge. In recognition of the equal value of experiential and academic knowledge, both types of knowledge are included in this study protocol, with input from stakeholder coauthors. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to collaborate with stakeholders to prioritize theoretically based implementation targets for the Social Brain Toolkit, understand the nature of these priorities, and develop targeted implementation strategies to address these priorities, in order to support the Social Brain Toolkit's implementation. METHODS: Theoretically underpinned by the Nonadoption, Abandonment, Scale-up, Spread, and Sustainability (NASSS) framework of digital health implementation, a maximum variation sample (N=35) of stakeholders coproduced knowledge of the implementation of the Social Brain Toolkit. People with brain injury (n=10), communication partners (n=11), and clinicians (n=5) participated in an initial web-based prioritization survey based on the NASSS framework. Survey completion was facilitated by plain English explanations and accessible captioned videos developed through 3 rounds of piloting. A speech-language pathologist also assisted stakeholders with brain injury to participate in the survey via video teleconference. Participants subsequently elaborated on their identified priorities via 7 web-based focus groups, in which researchers and stakeholders exchanged stakeholder perspectives and research evidence from a concurrent systematic review. Stakeholders were supported to engage in focus groups through the use of visual supports and plain English explanations. Additionally, individuals with experience in digital health implementation (n=9) responded to the prioritization survey questions via individual interview. The results will be deductively analyzed in relation to the NASSS framework in a coauthorship process with people with brain injury, communication partners, and clinicians. RESULTS: Ethical approval was received from the University of Technology Sydney Health and Medical Research Ethics Committee (ETH20-5466) on December 15, 2020. Data were collected from April 13 to November 18, 2021. Data analysis is currently underway, with results expected for publication in mid-2022. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, researchers supported individuals with living experience of acquired brain injury, of communicating with or clinically supporting someone post injury, and of digital health implementation, to directly access and leverage the latest implementation research evidence and theory. With this support, stakeholders were able to prioritize implementation research targets, develop targeted implementation solutions, and coauthor and publish new implementation findings. The results will be used to optimize the implementation of 3 real-world, evidence-based interventions and thus improve the outcomes of people with brain injury and their communication partners. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/35080.