Our study explored the navigational challenges of an unfamiliar room (with moving furniture and people) and what verbal guidance would be useful for visually impaired people(VIPs). A mainly qualitative approach of observation and interviews with ten VIPs revealed a lot about the challenges, guidance content and delivery. Further research is indicated to explore effective implementation.

Telehealth has long been highlighted as a way to solve issues of efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare and to improve patients' care and has become fundamental to address patients' needs during the COVID-19 pandemic; however previous studies have shown mixed results in the user acceptance of such technologies. Whilst many previous studies have focussed on clinical application of telehealth, we focus on the adoption of telehealth for virtual assessments visits aimed to evaluate the suitability of a property where a patient is discharged, and eventual adaptations needed. We present a study of stakeholders' attitudes towards such virtual assessment visits. The study has been carried out with healthcare professionals and patients and allowed us to identify user attitudes, barriers and facilitators for the success of virtual assessment visits from the point of view of healthcare professionals and patients. Finally, we discuss implications for designers of telehealth services and guidelines that can be derived from our study.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-bjo-10.1177_0308022620921111 for Remote Home Visit: Exploring the feasibility, acceptability and potential benefits of using digital technology to undertake occupational therapy home assessments by Jennifer Read, Natalie Jones, Colette Fegan, Peter Cudd, Emma Simpson, Suvodeep Mazumdar and Fabio Ciravegna in British Journal of Occupational Therapy

Introduction Home assessments are integral to the occupational therapy role, providing opportunities to personalise and integrate care. However, they are resource intensive and declining in number. A 3-month service development within one United Kingdom National Health Service acute hospital setting explored the concept of using digital technology to undertake remote home assessments. Methods Four work streams explored the concept’s feasibility and acceptability: real-world testing; user consultations; narrative case study collection; traditional visit resource use exploration. Project participants were occupational therapists and patient and public representatives recruited via snowball sampling or critical case sampling. Qualitative data were thematically analysed identifying key themes. Analysis of quantitative data provided descriptive statistics. Findings The remote home visit concept was feasible within four specific contexts. Qualitative themes suggest acceptability depends on visitor safety, visitor training, visitor induction and standardisation of practice. Consultees perceived the approach to have potential for resource savings, personalisation and integration of care. Barriers to acceptance included data security, data governance, technology failure and threat to occupational therapists’ role and skills. Conclusion Applying digital technology to occupational therapy home assessment appears feasible and acceptable within a specific context. Further research is recommended to develop the technology, and test and investigate perceived benefits within wider contexts and stakeholder groups.

The benefits of developing occupational therapists as clinical academics are well recognised. They include improved healthcare outcomes and experiences for service users, efficiencies for organisations and increased prominence of occupational therapy within healthcare. Yet occupational therapists describe uncertainty about how best to navigate clinical academic career pathways. We suggest that occupational therapists can increase their research aspirations, confidence and capacity by following a four-step method, weaving together clinical, academic and personal development. We outline our view of clinical academic development as a process with flexibility to incorporate occupational therapists' diversity of interests and circumstances. By demystifying and illuminating the process of clinical academic development, we believe that occupational therapists may be able to weave more clinical academic development opportunities into their careers and increase the profession's research capacity.

Cost improvements and delayed discharges or ‘bedblocking’ are historical, ongoing and topical issues (Gaughan et al 2016). Crucial for many inpatients in the discharge pathway are access and home visits (Marks 1994, Parker et al 2002). Many patients require Occupational Therapy home assessments prior to hospital discharge (Sheppard et al 2010). They are labour and resource intensive (Sampson et al 2014). Clinical practice also suggested that although necessary, arranging and conducting visits can delay discharges. It was hypothesized greatly reducing Occupational Therapists physically visiting homes could significantly reduce the costs to conduct the visits and speed up discharges. A NHS Trust, University collaborative delivered a secure videoconferencing and note taking prototype. Immediate service deployment was inappropriate; consequently an emulation of adapted practice in realistic home assessment settings plus clinician and public consultation regarding the service development is reported. A registered volunteer or relative being the home visitor with a smart phone or tablet and the hospital based Occupational Therapist operating a personal computer. A simple to use videolink allowed the therapist to instruct the visitor and make notes. Therapists evolved draft practice protocols progressively learning from scenarios that were increasingly better home assessment simulations. They also provided feedback for system improvements and obtained information to analyse cost and time savings. Findings: Patients’ discharge could be quicker through an approach offering easier patient involvement in the home assessment. For stroke and wheelchair services there was an estimate of £81,000 savings per year without accounting for reduced bed blocking.

IntelliTable is a new proof-of-principle assistive technology system with robotic capabilities in the form of an elegant universal cantilever table able to move around by itself, or under user control. We describe the design and current capabilities of the table and the human-centered design methodology used in its development and initial evaluation. The IntelliTable study has delivered robotic platform programmed by a smartphone that can navigate around a typical home or care environment, avoiding obstacles, and positioning itself at the user's command. It can also be configured to navigate itself to pre-ordained places positions within an environment using ceiling tracking, responsive optical guidance and object-based sonar navigation.

A lack of widely accepted guidelines/protocols for remote prescription of assistive technology is noted. This paper reports observations from attempts to use web based videoconferencing with embedded tools for the provision of assistive technology to children with complex needs.

This article refers to:Technology adoption, acceptance, satisfaction and benefit: integrating various assistive technology outcomes

An online video communication system is presented that enables Occupational Therapists (OTs) assess patient homes for assistive technology needs before acute care discharge to ensure appropriate independence and recovery conditions. Explorations under multiple conditions revealed perspectives from OTs and volunteer facilitators. Preliminary key findings and insights are reported.

Availability and access to information is critical for a highly effective response to an ongoing event however, information reported by citizens is based on their context, bias and subjective interpretation, and the channel of communication may be too narrow to provide clear, accurate reporting. This can often lead to inadequate response to an emergency, which can in turn result in loss of property or even lives. Excessive response to an emergency can also result in a waste of highly resources. The authors' solution to address this problem is to make the citizen act as a camera for the control room by exploiting the user's mobile camera. The system is designed to provide a live view of the citizen's immediate surroundings, while control room personnel can provide instructions. In this paper, the authors introduce their approach and share initial insights from a focus group validation session and then four evaluations with users within a separate but closely related domain. They discuss their observations, evaluation results and provide a set of recommendations for the Emergency Response domain.

Background: The study investigated the feasibility of conducting a future Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) of a mobile health (mHealth) intervention for weight loss and HbA1c reduction in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM).Methods: The intervention was a small wearable mHealth device used over 12 weeks by overweight people with T2DM with the intent to lose weight and reduce their HbA1c level. A 4 week maintenance period using the device followed. The device records physical activity level and information about food consumption, and provides motivational feedback based on energy balance. Twenty-seven participants were randomised to receive no intervention; intervention alone; or intervention plus weekly motivational support. All participants received advice on diet and exercise at the start of the study. Weight and HbA1c levels were recorded at baseline and weeks 6, 12, and 16. Qualitative interviews were conducted with participants who received the intervention to explore their experiences of using the device and involvement in the study including the training received.Results: Overall the device was perceived to be well-liked, acceptable, motivational and easy to use by participants. Some logistical changes were required during the feasibility study, including shortening of the study duration and relaxation of participant inclusion criteria. Descriptive statistics of weight and HbA1c data showed promising trends of weight loss and HbA1c reduction in both intervention groups, although this should be interpreted with caution.Conclusions: A number of methodological recommendations for a future RCT emerged from the current feasibility study. The mHealth device was acceptable and promising for helping individuals with T2DM to reduce their HbA1c and lose weight. Devices with similar features should be tested further in larger studies which follow these methodological recommendations.

Availability and access to information is critical for providing a highly effective response to an ongoing event – however, often information reported by citizens over the phone may be unclear, inaccurate, biased or subjective, based on the context of the reporter. This can often lead to inadequate response to an emergency, which can in turn result in loss of property or worse, lives. On the other hand, excessive response to an emergency can also result in a highly expensive exercise. Our solution to address this problem is to make the citizen act as a camera for the control room by exploiting the user’s mobile camera. The system is designed to provide a live view of the citizen’s immediate surroundings, while control room personnel can provide instructions. In this paper, we introduce the system and share initial insights from a focus group evaluation conducted within a separate but closely related domain.

Peer research was used to identify the experience and perceptions of assistive technology and telecare adoption in a UK healthcare context. A narrative account of participation and learning is intended to provoke further dialogue. There have been a range of policy and implementation initiatives that are within the direct experience of organisational actors over the last 15 years and this engagement allows for specific reflection on the service achievements and some of the barriers to implementation of technology changes in rehabilitation practice and service design. Insights are presented that suggest a reification of research priorities and a need to align technology, through patient and public engagement, to provider priorities. In addition, an improvement in adoption would be based on sustained capacity building within the Occupational Therapy workforce and a re-focus on specific knowledge sharing and learning about technology. Given the shared desire to promote the sustained adoption of appropriate technology for assistance and rehabilitation it is suggested the voice of practitioners is strengthened through research and knowledge exchange in the clinical setting.

A systematic way to select new ideas for research and development between two organisations is reported. It was applied to ideas that were generated from acute clinical settings by Occupational Therapists with a view to collaborate with nearby university academics from many disciplines. The process, assessment factors, use of ordinal scales with thresholding and an arbitrary formula are described. Challenges in the approach are discussed. Suitability for use by others in the AT field, other care related or even very different contexts is noted with some adaption and caveats.

This paper outlines the remit of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council KT-EQUAL (Knowledge Transfer for Extending Quality of Life for older and disabled people) programme. Case examples drawing on the range of activities undertaken by KT-EQUAL highlight where assistive technology developments have been facilitated, the value of network activities and an underpinning model of engagement and collaboration. Given an increasing emphasis on the impact of research the model and innovative approaches deployed by KT-EQUAL are even more crucial in future developments which aim to ensure that research can be used to benefit society.

Affordable solutions are needed to offer the growing population of people diagnosed with dementia support to maintain independence. Assistive technology has the potential to address this issue but devices should be tailored to the needs of this population. Previous work has focused on the design of such technologies and in new work evaluation(trial) guidelines are proposed to offer consistency amongst researchers looking to test completed products with intended users. The guidelines are implemented as trial protocol guidance and are applied to an existing protocol as a case example of how the guidelines could be used. Differences between the protocol and the guidelines are highlighted and provide evidence as to the potential usefulness of the document in informing an evaluation. The need for further development of the guidelines is also discussed and the authors state their intention to collaborate internationally in order to evolve the framework to the stage where it can be published as an accessible resource.