On the Use of Assistive Technology during the COVID-19 Outbreak: Results and Lessons Learned from Pilot Studies

Abstract

As a consequence of the COVID-19 emergency, frail citizens felt isolated because of social isolation, suspended and/or strongly reduced home assistance, and limited access to hospitals. In this sense, assistive technology could play a pivotal role in empowering frail older adults reducing their isolation, as well as in reinforcing the work of formal caregivers and professionals. In this context, the goal of this paper is to present four pilot studies—conducted from March 2020 to April 2021—to promptly react to COVID-19 by providing assistive technology solutions, aiming to (1) guarantee high-quality service to older adults in-home or in residential facility contexts, (2) promote social inclusion, and (3) reduce the virus transmission. In particular, four services, namely, telepresence service, remote monitoring service, virtual visit, and environmental disinfection, were designed, implemented, and tested in real environments involving 85 end-users to assess the user experience and/or preliminary assess the technical feasibility. The results underlined that all the proposed services were generally accepted by older adults and professionals. Additionally, the results remarked that the use of telepresence robots in private homes and residential facilities increased enjoyment reducing anxiety, whereas the monitoring service supported the clinicians in monitoring the discharged COVID-19 patients. It is also worth mentioning that two new services/products were developed to disinfect the environment and to allow virtual visits within the framework of a hospital information system. The virtual visits service offered the opportunity to expand the portfolio of hospital services. The main barriers were found in education, technology interoperability, and ethical/legal/privacy compliance. It is also worth mentioning the key role played by an appropriate design and customer needs analysis since not all assistive devices were designed for older persons.

Design and Evaluation of Personalized Services to Foster Active Aging: The Experience of Technology Pre-Validation in Italian Pilots

“…The robot was highly appreciated by all participants, as was confirmed by SUS results that were high for all participants ( Table 7 and Table 9 ). These results also align with our previous study conducted during the COVID-19 emergency [ 52 ]. Consequently, one important remark on this study concerns the discrepancies between the SUS values and the qualitative feedback collected at the end of the trial.…”

Ten Years of TeleHealth and Digital Healthcare: Where Are We?

“…Furthermore, even in TH and DH, one can currently count on the use of emerging technologies, such as robotics [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], augmented reality [ 28 ], virtual reality [ 29 ], and artificial intelligence [ 30 , 31 ]. Moreover, assistive technologies have played a strategic role during the pandemic as they were consolidated in the context of different applications and disabilities relating communication and motion [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ].…”

Perspectivas do monitoramento de Experiência de Usuário em diferentes domínios com ferramenta de captura multimodal

“…Nesta sec ¸ão, são apresentados trabalhos que trazem lic ¸ões aprendidas em estudos de UX. Fiorini et al (2022) apresentam quatro estudos piloto sobre a UX de idosos no uso de tecnologias assistivas durante período de isolamento social na pandemia de COVID-19. Os resultados destacam que o uso de robôs de telepresenc ¸a em residências particulares aumentou o prazer e reduziu a ansiedade, enquanto o servic ¸o de monitoramento apoiou os médicos no acompanhamento dos pacientes com COVID-19.…”

“…O desenvolvimento/aprimoramento das feramentas de captura multimodal se torna uma necessidade. O uso de uma abordagem multidisciplinar é ser uma alternativa, como apontando em Fiorini et al (2022).…”