BackgroundThe number of people living with dementia is rapidly increasing. With dementia’s impact on memory, communication, and self-identity, it is important to identify ways of meeting individual needs of diagnosed individuals and their caregivers. This study will test a new intervention, SENSE-GARDEN, that integrates autobiographical music, films, pictures, and scents with innovative technology to create an immersive environment tailored specifically for the individual.ObjectiveThe SENSE-GARDEN study is an Active Assisted Living Program–funded multicenter project. The primary objective of the study is to assess whether a personalized, innovative technology-based intervention can improve the well-being of older adults living with moderate to severe dementia. The study will also assess whether the intervention can improve coping and reduce burden in caregivers.MethodsA controlled before-after study design will be used. There will be 3 sites in 3 trial countries: Belgium, Norway, and Portugal. A total of 55 people with dementia (PWDs) will be recruited. All eligible participants for the study will be randomized into the intervention or control group. For the first three months of the study, all participants will receive the SENSE-GARDEN intervention. For the final month of the study, the intervention group will continue visits to the SENSE-GARDEN, and the control group will discontinue visits. A mixed-methods approach will be used, including the use of standardized outcome measures, quantitative physiological data, and qualitative interview data.ResultsThe trials commenced recruitment in August 2019, and all data are expected to be collected by the end of May 2020. A user-centered design process is underway, with results from the first phase of user interviews indicating that people with mild cognitive impairment, family caregivers, and professional caregivers consider the SENSE-GARDEN to be a potentially valuable tool in providing numerous benefits to dementia care. Feasibility testing of the SENSE-GARDEN has been completed and results are expected to be published in October 2019.ConclusionsFindings from the SENSE-GARDEN trials will provide insights into the use of technology for personalizing interventions to the PWD. This will have potential implications on not only dementia research, but it may also have influences on care practice.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/14096

Abstract-Creating the best solution in terms of a rehabilitation technique, device or system design for rehabilitation medicine interventions or assistance is not enough. The new solution has to be effective. And, in order to be effective, it has to be used therefore, the solution has to be accepted by the user as a solution for his/her functional need. The solution must convince the physical therapist, all the other members of the medical team, as well as the patient and his/her family, of its utility, before use and during its use. The degree of usability of the solution will be cultural specific and very personal. A model for Rehabilitation Technology Acceptance and Usability (RTAU) has been developed in order to become a base for rehabilitation technology usability prediction. The model presented in this paper is a world-wide premiere, considering the patient centered approach.

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Our multidisciplinary team decided to concentrate efforts in developing a new gait rehabilitation system, able to respond to most of the requirements of an ideal training system. Therefore, we identified the system’s necessary, we compared the costs and the benefits of the existing concepts and systems, and we developed the concept and the design of the system called RELIVE. Developing this system makes the object of a funded national research and development project.

Given the large variability of pathological gait and the high specificity of gait phenotypes, it is very difficult to design a gait rehabilitation system able to adapt to the functional requirements of every person with ambulation disabilities, in every stage of the complex process of gait rehabilitation. Another approach is that of ambiental gait rehabilitation, with focus on adaptability, not on adaptation, on synthetical training, not on analytical training, on integrative training, not on step by step training. Our focus is not on controlling the movement itself, but on controlling the environment that shapes human functionality and assuring the appropriate level of support, resistance and persuasion, with consequent stimulation of the explorative behavior and the active involvement of the person in gait training. A mechatronic system designed for such a therapeutical approach has specific functional requirements.