A. Hand-TaPS stands for Hand Task Practice Survey. It's a new, smartphone-based survey whose purpose is to better understand the experience of using hand movement retraining devices at home to enhance the exercises (occupational therapists call these exercises "task practice") people do for hand therapy. Hand-TaPS uses a precision survey method called EMA (ecological momentary assessment). As more and more people move to smartphones, EMA is poised to become the survey method of choice for understanding how people actually experience using technology to help them do therapy at home.
A. Traditional surveys ask you a lot of questions, all at once, about a technology you've used at some point in the past. Our minds tend to summarize the experience, blurring the highs and the lows. EMA works by presenting just a very few, multiple choice questions periodically over the time you are learning and using the new technology. We think EMA is a good approach to understanding people's day-to-day experience using technology in their home hand exercise programs.
A. First, you register to participate in the survey HERE.
Once you have registered, you will receive a participant number and a link to download an app, SEMA3, to your smartphone. Both Apple and Android devices are fine.
Then, for the next 30 days, you will receive a notification on your smartphone to complete a brief survey (2-7, multiple choice questions) 3 times a day.
You can also submit an ad hoc (user initiated) survey whenever you like.
All (most) questions can be answered with a single touch to your smartphone screen. There is no typing required.
There is an option to provide more detailed feedback in the ad hoc survey, but it is not required.
You can answer as many or as few surveys over the 30 days as works for you.
You get entered into a monthly lottery for a $50 thank-you gift card every time you complete a survey.
A. We can't say for sure if or how you might benefit. Here are some thoughts.
Taking a moment to identify what’s working and not working for you as you move through the first month of your home exercise program may help you understand and communicate that experience better to your device provider and/or your therapist.
More targeted information from you may help your team be more effective in assuring you get the most out of your home program.
We also hope you will get satisfaction knowing that your responses to Hand-TaPS can help technology researchers design and build better devices to support people's efforts to accelerate their hand therapy from home.
A. You will get pinged three (3) times a day: in the morning at 8:30, in the afternoon at 1:30, and in the evening at 6:30. Each survey contains from two (2) to seven (7), multiple choice (rating scale) questions. The survey of the moment will be available for you to respond to for 3 hours after it arrives. Then it will go away.
You can also self-initiate a survey response at any time to tell us specifically what's on your mind at the moment relative to your Saebo device or your home exercise program in general.
A: Absolutely nothing. We expect it may not always be convenient for people to respond. You can respond to as many or as few pings as works for you. You can also report your experience ad hoc as often or as infrequently as you want.
A: Every time you do Hand-TaPS, you earn $1 toward a max $50 VISA gift card as a token of our thanks for participating.
A. SEMA3 (Smartphone Ecological Momentary Assessment v3) is a research tool developed at Australian Catholic University and Orygen-The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, in collaboration with Boosted Human. It is maintained by the Melbourne eResearch Group .
A: Anyone who has recently begun using a hand home movement retraining system as well as a person, a therapy partner, who is helping support that effort.
A: Your therapy partner could be a spouse or other family member, a friend or a professional caregiver such as a home health aid.
A: You can refer your therapy partner when you register for Hand-TaPS. If you want to add a partner later, email Manon Schladen (schladen@cua.edu) and she will work with you and your partner to get the link.
A: Yes. The responses you each make both earn credit separately. Participating in Hand-TaPS with a therapy partner doubles the possible thank-you amount for your household!
A: 1) Be an individual just beginning to use a movement retraining technology in your home hand exercise program OR a person supporting such an individual in doing hand therapy at home. 2) Register for Hand-TaPS HERE OR send an email to schladen@cua.edu saying you're interested.
A: The only identifying information we will collect from you will be the email you designate to initiate participation.
The SEMA3 app will assign you a participant number and not retain your email.
Researchers at the RERC-DC will keep a secure file mapping your email to your SEMA3 participant number.
This is necessary to contact you should your participant number be drawn in the monthly gift card lottery!
Your data and that of your therapy partner will be linked for statistical purposes, but we will share neither your participation status, nor your responses nor your gift card lottery outcome.
If you received a link to this site from your therapist or device provider, they will not know whether or not you ultimately decided to participate.
A: Every time you complete a survey, you get a one dollar credit toward a $50 VISA card. Surveys that are unscheduled, i.e. where you can provide "ad hoc" feedback, are limited to earning $1 per day, however.
At the end of your time in Hand-TaPS (about one month) , we will add up your survey responses and send you a gift card for that number of dollars (up to $50).
A: Until you complete your 30 days of receiving Hand-TaPS Surveys. This means you will likely be eligible for TWO drawings, as your participation will likely span two calendar
A: The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at the Administration for Community Living (ACL) , part of the US Department of Health and Human Services is sponsoring Hand-TaPS through a grant to the Catholic University of America, The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on patient-centered, Home-based Technologies to Assess and Treat Motor Impairment in Individuals with Neurologic Injury. The Center is called the RERC-DC for short.
A: Email Manon Schladen, PhD, schladen@cua.edu