It's Not Just the Movement: Experiential Information Needed for Stroke Telerehabilitation

TL;DR

This paper highlights the importance of experiential information, beyond movement data, in stroke telerehabilitation, emphasizing the need for more inclusive sensor design and data collection approaches.

Contribution

It reveals that rehabilitation specialists value experiential data alongside movement metrics, proposing a reconceptualization of telerehabilitation systems to incorporate this broader information.

Findings

Specialists consider experiential information crucial for interpretation.

Movement data alone is insufficient for effective rehabilitation planning.

Design implications for more inclusive telerehabilitation systems.

Abstract

Telerehabilitation systems for stroke survivors have been predominantly designed to measure and quantify movement in order to guide and encourage rehabilitation regular exercises at home. We set out to study what aspect of the movement data was essential, to better inform sensor design. We investigated face-to-face stroke rehabilitation sessions through a series of interviews and observations involving 16 stroke rehabilitation specialists including physiatrists, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. We found that specialists are not solely interested in movement data, and that experiential information about stroke survivors' lived experience plays an essential role in specialists interpreting movement data and creating a rehabilitation plan. We argue for a reconceptualization in stroke telerehabilitation that is more inclusive of non-movement data, and present design implications to better account for experiential information in telerehabilitation systems.