Tracking Individual Assistive Technology Interventions and Measuring Their Outcomes

摘要

This paper reports the findings of a study that developed a standardized method to track individual assistive technology (AT) interventions for any user, able to generate reports needed in clinical practice, measure the outcome and detect possible critical issues requiring adjustment. Individual AT interventions were carried out with 120 participants, and the process was tracked by means of a purposely-developed template including five sections: (1) contact data, (2) Assessment Report, (3) Verification Report, (4) Follow-up Report, and (5) statistical data. The outcome of the interventions was measured for 34 participants by means of three instruments (KWAZO, IPPA and QUEST). KWAZO proved useful to capture the user's perception about the quality of the process. IPPA proved useful to describe the perceived effectiveness of the assistive solution provided; negative IPPA scores are clear alerts that the user needs to be contacted again to check what happened and - if possible - undertake corrective interventions; near-to-zero (<1) IPPA scores also suggest to check whether the assistive solution has proved ineffective or brought about positive effects in relation to some problems and negative effects in relation to others. Likewise, possible low QUEST scores (<3) alert that the related products had critical problems and corrective actions may be required, in order to increase the assistive solution effectiveness.