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Empathic Avatars in Stroke Rehabilitation: A Co-designed mHealth Artifact for Stroke Survivors

  • Conference paper
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Designing the Digital Transformation (DESRIST 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10243))

Abstract

Stroke is the second highest cause of death and disability worldwide. While rehabilitation programs are intended to support stroke survivors, and promote recovery after they leave the hospital, current rehabilitation programs typically provide only static written instructions and lack the ability to keep them engaged with the program. In this design science research paper, we present an mHealth artifact that builds on behavior change theory to increase stroke survivors’ engagement in rehabilitation programs. We employed a co-design methodology to identify design requirements for the stroke rehabilitation mHealth artifact, addressing stroke survivors’ needs and incorporating expertise of healthcare providers. Guided by these requirements, we developed design principles for the artifact pertaining to visual assets that are essential in immersing users in the design. We carried out a two-stage development process by having workshops and interviews with experts. Following this, a prototype was developed and evaluated in a series of workshops with multiple stakeholders.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is important to highlight that recent research has successfully explored the application of virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation (e.g., see [53, 54]). Yet, these approaches are used to a lesser extent compared to traditional rehabilitation techniques.

  2. 2.

    Although the technology for such interventions exists, it seems that this opportunity has been overlooked: out of 29,000 medical apps in the US iTunes® store, 130 (16%) could be used in rehabilitation, but less than 1% specifically assist the caregiver to better face the challenges of stroke survivors [55]. Our artifact differs from these apps by building on the theory of behavior change, a co-design process with multiple stakeholders, and empirical validation using clinical trials.

  3. 3.

    It appears that the notion of empathy is of particular importance in healthcare settings, as individuals are experiencing a life-changing event with potentially devastating consequences on their everyday lives. For instance, Javor et al. found that Parkinson’s disease patients exhibit significantly lower trust levels towards other humans than healthy subjects do [56]. In a follow-up study, Javor et al. showed that trust levels can be increased by using avatars [57].

  4. 4.

    The process is summarized in a short video: http://youtu.be/MV23MdmlfAg.

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Acknowledgments

The first author would like to acknowledge the full scholarship from the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to study a PhD degree in Information Systems at the University of Newcastle, Australia. We thank John Attia and Mark Roxburgh for their valuable advice in the design of the Regain app. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and suggestions, which assisted in improving the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Hussain M. Aljaroodi, Marc T. P. Adam, Raymond Chiong, David J. Cornforth & Mario Minichiello

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  1. Hussain M. Aljaroodi
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  2. Marc T. P. Adam
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  3. Raymond Chiong
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  4. David J. Cornforth
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  5. Mario Minichiello
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Correspondence to Hussain M. Aljaroodi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Karlsruhe Institute of Technologie (KIT) , Karlsruhe, Germany

    Alexander Maedche

  2. University of Liechtenstein , Vaduz, Liechtenstein

    Jan vom Brocke

  3. University of South Florida , Tampa, Florida, USA

    Alan Hevner

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Aljaroodi, H.M., Adam, M.T.P., Chiong, R., Cornforth, D.J., Minichiello, M. (2017). Empathic Avatars in Stroke Rehabilitation: A Co-designed mHealth Artifact for Stroke Survivors. In: Maedche, A., vom Brocke, J., Hevner, A. (eds) Designing the Digital Transformation. DESRIST 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10243. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59144-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59144-5_5

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