Authors (including presenting author) :
LI LY, LIU CH, HO SL, KWOK HY
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, North District Hospital
Introduction :
The ability to perform everyday tasks about the home is essential for patient’s safe discharge. Timely intervention to person-environment-occupation congruence is essential for occupational therapy in supporting patient’s discharge. In-home assessment by occupational therapist are often required, however the visits by therapist and caregivers are restricted under COVID-19 pandemic. To tackle these challenges, Augmented Reality (AR) is applied as it allows occupational therapist to walk-through and envision modifications with the patient and caregiver, facilitating patient-centered two-way discussion with remote assessment and communication. AR offers perceptually enriched experiences and benefits the users to preview what the modifications might look like through the use of 3D registrations. The decision making process for the intervention is enhanced efficiently, hence compliance and readiness for safer living environment could be improved.
Objectives :
(1) providing a user-friendly interactive platform, with perceptually enriched experiences for home intervention, (2) enhancing compliance and readiness to the recommendations, (3) reducing the waiting time and number of in-home and in-hospital visits.
Methodology :
A qualitative study on feasibility was conducted. Subjects: (1) Patients hospitalized in Convalescent & Rehabilitation Ward, (2) Planned to be discharged, (3) Caregivers’ readiness for the AR application. Data captured: (1) Semi structure interviews, (2) User satisfaction survey. Outcome measures: (1) AR platform utilization, (2) In-home and in-hospital visits number, (3) Compliance of recommendations, (4) Users’ acceptance.
Result & Outcome :
From December 2020, 8 patients completed the program. In-home and in-hospital visits by therapist and caregivers respectively were not required in pre-discharge phase. Users reported the AR apps was user-friendly. Patients felt impressed while previewing the recommendation remotely as they could anticipate the outcome and impact on their modified real home environment. Caregivers commented the accurate 3D registrations of the real objects, e.g. handrails, hazards identification, and furniture rearrangement were excellently useful. They regarded these interventions were smart to ensure the home safety and independency of their cared ones. Caregivers recommended or highly recommended this technology for the home intervention.
Conclusion:
AR for remote home intervention was applicable in supporting the patient, caregiver and occupational therapists in discharge planning. The cost of the market available AR technology was low. Training and technical supports on the use of the AR might be required if it is widely applied to other patients group.
