A. It's a new, smartphone-based survey whose purpose is to better understand the experience of using robot-enabled, game-based technology in a therapeutic home exercise program (HEP). PedBot-EMA 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 talk or email with a member of the PedBotHome research team to discuss how your participation might be structured:
What time windows are ok to receive pings and which times should be blocked,
Who in the family should be receiving pings - one or both parents, another carer, the child with CP or multiple family members.
Once these details are agreed upon, 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 rest of the time PedBotHome is in your home, you will receive a notification, "ping," on your smartphone to complete a brief, 6-item survey during the days and times agreed.
You can respond to as many or few pings s as works for you.
A. We can't say for sure if or how you might benefit. Here are some thoughts.
Taking a moment to log how you're feeling about home exercise therapy may help identify what’s working and not working for kids with CP and their families as they use PedBotHome.
This reflection may help you understand and communicate issues better to the research team, both on the clinical and techical sides.
We also hope you will get satisfaction knowing that your responses to PedBot-EMA will help technology researchers design and build better devices to support families of children with CP in their efforts to promote better therapeutic outcomes by carrying out a program of exercise at home.
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.
Your data and that of other members of your family who may participate will be linked for statistical purposes, but we will NOT disclose your responses.
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 PedBot-EMA 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