”How can we rehabilitate young stroke patients in their home environment?”
Stroke is today one of the most common causes of death in the world. It costs the Swedish society 8 billion dollars yearly! Studies also show that stroke is something that is increasing among young adults. Of these, it is mainly women who are in the middle of life who are affected. Healthcare professionals visit stroke patients and continue to support them. However, the real challenge starts in their homes.
The goal is to be able to visualize a concept that uses motivation and insight as keywords for the patient's independent and continuous rehabilitation. Stroke varies a lot in its symptoms. To be more specific, I have looked more closely at obstacles in motor skills, finger grip, wrist joint, arm joint, shoulder and cognition. The aim is to create a system or a physical aid that can be used without the physical presence of healthcare personnel.
INSPIRATION & METHODS
I would like the rehabilitation tool and integrated system to be less stigmatized as health equipment for the patient. The main inspiration comes from game design and its best practices in engaging the user and make it a playful experience. I aimed to create joyful practices for the patient that also becomes a beautiful game board that invites for training everyday. During my research with both patients and health staff, I found that it is very important that the tools that are created for these patients need to be able to be adjusted over time since the patient's condition changes. The system needs to evolve with the patient's condition and the various symptoms they might have.
For the method, I used conductive interviews with health staff at the Norrlands hospital. I also interviewed younger patients about their experience in recovering from a stroke and how they experienced rehabilitation at home, and made patient observation. During the ideation and visualization process, I initiated feedback sessions with both health staff and patients to get relevant input.
RESULT
Let me introduce you to a new rehabilitation tool called Animo. Animo is an interactive physical rehabilitation game supported by a training system in an app. You have five different practice boxes that you first pick out with your therapist at the rehab center. The app guides you through the practices and asks you how you feel before the session. The AR assistance helps the patient to self-regulate its movement. The patient can compare its result after a session to gain insight on how to improve. Find all recorded sessions from your practices in the app and choose to share this with your therapist to analyze and support your training. The app learns over time when during the day you should practice. The gathered information from patients' practice can in a visionary future scenario be used to support the stroke community and its research development.
CONTACT ME
Want to know more about this project, talk about health tech, or how we could intersect interaction design and industrial design in a sustainable way for the future? Don't be a stranger. Email me: rebekka@requindustries.com or to see more projects visit: www.requindustries.com
