A novel mobile biobehavioral regulation system for personalized trauma recovery support

Abstract

Even years after experiencing a physical trauma, individuals describe trauma-specific distress, as trauma triggers present as sensory reminders that initiate physiological reactions at time of exposure. Mobile technologies offer tremendous potential in helping individuals who have experienced trauma manage symptoms as they transition out of hospital care and move back into their communities where they are at risk of trauma trigger exposure. A personalized wearable device, tailored to a patient-specific diagnosis (e.g., PTSD) with programmable neurophysiological behavioral risk set-points, could be a useful tool in helping individuals monitor symptomology. When this type of monitoring device is also connected to a personalized recovery cue intervention on a smartwatch or phone, and activated when the wearable sensor detects heightened risk, there is the opportunity for in-the-moment symptom management. In this study we sought to understand the value for trauma survivors of using this type of personalized mobile recovery support system. Study participants were all trauma survivors or family members of survivors who were involved in the Trauma Survivors Network. A semi-structured interview was conducted with participants to understand perceptions on the utility, sensory experiences, and innovation insights of a mobile recovery sensory support system overall, and about the recovery cue intervention most specifically. Results from participant interviews inform the further development of our mobile recovery support system model in significant ways, suggesting that three components must be included: 1) Recovery cues; 2) Relationships (connecting to supportive network); and 3) Regulation (neurophysiological regulation and behavioral risk reduction).

Ashes2Art: Mitigation Strategies for Short-and Long-term Distress in Emergency Services Personnel During COVID-19

“…Sensory support system interventions comprised of their own digitized artwork created out of the art-making experience, may preserve that calming effect by activating the regulated neurophysiological state originally experienced when creating art. Mobile technologies that enable individuals to become aware of when their brains and bodies are reacting to stress exposure provide their digitized mandala substitutions at that moment, along with immediate connections to their virtual and/or live peer support network, will help individuals gain awareness and control over their stress response, and offer a real-time mindful regulation strategy that they have created for themselves (Matto 2015 ; Matto & Seshaiyer 2018 ; Matto et al 2019 ).…”

Patient Experience from an eHealth Perspective: A Scoping Review of Approaches and Recent Trends

“…• Technologies to support virtual visitsfor example, in primary care [39] and virtual care, including video consults and remote monitoring of vitals-among patients with COVID-19 [40]; • Online tools and platforms for patientsfor example, a self-management program for patients with scleroderma [41], an online prescription drug choice tool [38], and an online platform for patients undergoing primary hip and knee replacements [42]; • mHealth applications-for example, a mobile health solution to support people with heart disease [43] and heart failure [44], and a mobile biobehavioral regulation system for trauma patients [45].…”

“…(incl. qualitative and/or quantitative questions) [19,20,[22][23][24][25]28,29,34,40,43,46,[52][53][54][56][57][58]60] Interview [30,32,35,37,42,45,59] Focus group [36,41] Service analysis [31,51] Design methods [44] Reviews [26,39,49] Implementation study [18,21,50,61] Cross-sectional study [27,33] eHealth pilot or trial [38,43,47,48,55] The most frequently used method (i.e., surveys) was applied in 18 papers (see Figure 2). As patient satisfaction was one of the most mentioned aspects affecting PX, patient satisfaction surveys were the most broadly applied.…”

“…Interviews-most often semi-structured interviews-were the next most mentioned method, and the most commonly used qualitative research methods, with seven mentions [30,32,35,37,42,45,59]. Focus groups [36,41] were used in two studies.…”