Authors (including presenting author) :
Tse AWS(1), Pang BCH (1), Ku BPS(1), Chan JKY(1), Pang JYW(1), Choi KHW(1), Wong HMC(1), Chu DSY(1), Hui HL(1), Cai KY(1), Cheung NT(1), Au BKM(2), Poon PYH(3), Lo DTC(3)
Affiliation :
(1) Information Technology and Health Informatics Division, Hospital Authority Head Office (2) Allied Health Information Technology Committee (3) Allied Health Grade
Introduction :
Rehabilitation is a continuous process which extends from in-patient to out-patient and ultimately to community. Overseas evidence indicates that through the use of mobile app, numerous potential benefits can be achieved that include earlier and safer discharge; improving continuity of care; better accessibility to rehabilitation; enhancing service efficiency and facilitating rehabilitation in patient’s own living environment. In collaboration with Central Committee (Rehabilitation) and Allied Health Grade, a project has been established targeting to enhance rehabilitation through the use of mobile technology.
Objectives :
- To build a prescription platform that is generic, scalable for future expansion and able to close loop the training results to Allied Health therapists. - To build an app for the patients to view and follow the prescribed training activities - To develop a notification system to remind patients for training according to the prescribed schedule
Methodology :
This idea is initiated and supported from the successful pilot of Mobile Application on Cognitive Training in 2017. Satisfactory result is obtained from the survey after the pilot. This proved the concept that using app for rehabilitation is beneficial to patient. The first phase of development encompassed: The HA Go Prescription System in Clinical Management System is built in 2019 so that therapists can prescribe suitable activity to patients. System design emphasized user friendliness and also in-line with clinical workflow such that Allied Health colleagues who login will have their discipline recognized so that corresponding training videos for that discipline would be displayed. - The "Rehab App" is developed to be a member app under the umbrella of HA Go. Patients can view the details of the prescribed activities as well as execute the training activity through app. - Push notification will be sent to the patient five minutes before prescribed activity starts. Training videos can be triggered directly by clicking the push notification without need for patient to login. This feature is specially designed to facilitate elderly patients. - In addition, rehabilitation activities performed through Rehab App will be channeled back to HA Go Prescription so that therapist can view the patient's performance during follow up. - In sum, the HA Go Prescription and Rehab App combo 1) adopts generic design to allow use by different Allied Health disciplines; 2) can accommodate different clinical conditions; 3) allows prescription of materials of different media, e.g. video, game; 4) allows rapid expansion of scope in response to service needs. It breaks away from the conventional one app one condition boundary.
Result & Outcome :
In the first phase of development, the Rehab App included: 45 Activities of Daily Living videos, 33 Oromotor Training videos and 54 Physical Training videos. During the second phase of development, Cognitive Training Game was added for use by Clinical Psychologist and Occupational Therapist. The HA Go Prescription and Rehab App is rollout to all 7 clusters on 8 October, 2019. In the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak, 70 new training videos were added rapidly. The number of patients being prescribed increased dramatically and accumulated to 15008 in December 2020. Furthermore, over 130000 videos were viewed per month. To move forward, more training videos, games, educational materials will be added to cater for service needs.
