Use of a Persona to Support the Interdisciplinary Design of an Assistive Technology for Meal Preparation in Traumatic Brain Injury

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisnel Olivares ◽  
Hélène Pigot ◽  
Carolina Bottari ◽  
Monica Lavoie ◽  
Taoufik Zayani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Language Models ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Evaluation Tool ◽  
Clinical Model ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract User-centered design (UCD) facilitates the creation of technologies that are specifically designed to answer users’ needs. This paper presents the first step of a UCD using a persona, a fictitious character representing the targeted population, which in this case is people having sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The persona is used to better understand the possible interactions of a TBI population with a prototype of a technology that we wish to develop, namely the Cognitive Orthosis for coOKing (COOK). COOK is meant to be an assistive technology that will be designed to promote independence for cooking within a supported-living residence. More specifically, this paper presents the persona’s creation methodology based on the first four phases of the persona’s lifecycle. It also describes how the persona methodology served as a facilitator to initiate an interdisciplinary collaboration between a clinical team and a computer science team. Creation of personas relied on a clinical model (Disability Creation Process) that contextualized the needs of this population and an evaluation tool [Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Profile] that presented a wide range of cognitive assistance needs found in this same population. This paper provides an in-depth description of some of the most frequent everyday difficulties experienced by individuals with TBI as well as the persona’s abilities, limitations and social participation during the realization of IADL, and an evaluation of the manifestations of these difficulties during IADL performance as represented through scenarios. The interdisciplinary team used the persona to complete a first description of the interactions of a persona with TBI with COOK. This work is an attempt at offering a communication tool, the persona, to facilitate interdisciplinary research among diverse disciplines who wish to learn to develop a common language, models and methodologies at the beginning of the design process.

scholarly journals Traumatic Brain Injury: Effect of Litigation Status on Executive Functioning—A Pilot Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simi Prakash K. ◽  
Rajakumari P. Reddy ◽  
Anna R. Mathulla ◽  
Jamuna Rajeswaran ◽  
Dhaval P. Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Concept Formation ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Set Shifting ◽  
Wide Range

AbstractTraumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with a wide range of physiological, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive sequelae. Litigation status is one of the many factors that has an impact on recovery. The aim of this study was to compare executive functions, postconcussion, and depressive symptoms in TBI patients with and without litigation. A sample of 30 patients with TBI, 15 patients with litigation (medicolegal case [MLC]), and 15 without litigation (non-MLC) was assessed. The tools used were sociodemographic and clinical proforma, executive function tests, Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptom Questionnaire, and Beck Depression Inventory. Assessment revealed that more than 50% of patients showed deficits in category fluency, set shifting, and concept formation. The MLC group showed significant impairment on verbal working memory in comparison to the non-MLC group. The performance of both groups was comparable on tests of semantic fluency, visuospatial working memory, concept formation, set shifting, planning, and response inhibition. The MLC group showed more verbal working memory deficits in the absence of significant postconcussion and depressive symptoms on self-report measures.

Prognostic Factors for Persistent Symptoms in Adults With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: an Overview of Systematic Reviews

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Déry ◽  
Béatrice Ouellet ◽  
Élaine de Guise ◽  
Ève-Line Bussières ◽  
Marie-Eve Lamontagne
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Prognostic Factors ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Persistent Symptoms ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Overview Of Systematic Reviews

Abstract Background: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is an increasing public health problem, because of its persistent symptoms and several functional consequences. Understanding the prognosis of a condition is an important component of clinical decision-making and can help to guide prevention of persistent symptoms following mTBI. Prognosis of mTBI has stimulated several empirical primary research papers and many systematic reviews leading to the identification of a wide range of factors. We aim to synthesize these factors to get a better understanding of their breadth and scope.Methods: We conducted an overview of systematic reviews. We searched in databases systematic reviews synthesizing evidence about prognosis of persistent symptoms after mTBI in the adult population. Two reviewers independently screened all references and selected eligible reviews based on eligibility criteria. They extracted relevant information using an extraction grid. They also rated independently the risk of bias using the ROBIS tool. We synthesized evidence into a comprehensive conceptual map to facilitate the understanding of prognostic factors that have an impact on persistent post-concussion symptoms.Results: From the 3857 references retrieved in database search, we included 25 systematic reviews integrating the results of 312 primary articles published between 1957 and 2019. We examined 35 prognostic factors from the systematics reviews. No single prognostic factor demonstrated convincing and conclusive results. However, age, sex and multiple concussions showed an affirmatory association with persistent post-concussion outcomes in systematic reviews.Conclusion: We highlighted the need of a comprehensive picture of prognostic factors related to persistent post-concussion symptoms. We believe that these prognostic factors would guide clinical decision and research related to prevention and intervention regarding persistent post-concussion symptoms.Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42020176676

scholarly journals Comorbidity in adults with traumatic brain injury and all-cause mortality: a systematic review

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. e029072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Xiong ◽  
Sara Hanafy ◽  
Vincy Chan ◽  
Zheng Jing Hu ◽  
Mitchell Sutton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Qualitative Description ◽  
Comorbid Condition ◽  
Comorbid Conditions ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
All Cause Mortality

ObjectivesComorbidity in traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been recognised to alter the clinical course of patients and influence short-term and long-term outcomes. We synthesised the evidence on the effects of different comorbid conditions on early and late mortality post-TBI in order to (1) examine the relationship between comorbid condition(s) and all-cause mortality in TBI and (2) determine the influence of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients with a TBI at baseline on all-cause mortality.DesignSystematic review.Data sourcesMedline, Central, Embase, PsycINFO and bibliographies of identified articles were searched from May 1997 to January 2019.Eligibility criteria for selecting studiesIncluded studies met the following criteria: (1) focused on comorbidity as it related to our outcome of interest in adults (ie, ≥18 years of age) diagnosed with a TBI; (2) comorbidity was detected by any means excluding self-report; (3) reported the proportion of participants without comorbidity and (4) followed participants for any period of time.Data extraction and synthesisTwo independent reviewers extracted the data and assessed risk of bias using the Quality in Prognosis Studies tool. Data were synthesised through tabulation and qualitative description.ResultsA total of 27 cohort studies were included. Among the wide range of individual comorbid conditions studied, only low blood pressure was a consistent predictors of post-TBI mortality. Other consistent predictors were traditional sociodemographic risk factors. Higher comorbidity scale, scores and the number of comorbid conditions were not consistently associated with post-TBI mortality.ConclusionsGiven the high number of comorbid conditions that were examined by the single studies, research is required to further substantiate the evidence and address conflicting findings. Finally, an enhanced set of comorbidity measures that are suited for the TBI population will allow for better risk stratification to guide TBI management and treatment.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42017070033

Drug Repurposing in Neurological Disorders: Implications for Neurotherapy in Traumatic Brain Injury

2020 ◽  
pp. 107385842096107
Author(s):  
Zaynab Shakkour ◽  
Karl John Habashy ◽  
Moussa Berro ◽  
Samira Takkoush ◽  
Samar Abdelhady ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Drug Administration ◽  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Food And Drug Administration ◽  
Drug Repurposing ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Minimal Risk ◽  
Wide Range

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a significant leading cause of death and disability among adults and children globally. To date, there are no Food and Drug Administration–approved drugs that can substantially attenuate the sequelae of TBI. The innumerable challenges faced by the conventional de novo discovery of new pharmacological agents led to the emergence of alternative paradigm, which is drug repurposing. Repurposing of existing drugs with well-characterized mechanisms of action and human safety profiles is believed to be a promising strategy for novel drug use. Compared to the conventional discovery pathways, drug repurposing is less costly, relatively rapid, and poses minimal risk of the adverse outcomes to study on participants. In recent years, drug repurposing has covered a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases and neurological disorders including brain injury. This review highlights the advances in drug repurposing and presents some of the promising candidate drugs for potential TBI treatment along with their possible mechanisms of neuroprotection. Edaravone, glyburide, ceftriaxone, levetiracetam, and progesterone have been selected due to their potential role as putative TBI neurotherapeutic agents. These drugs are Food and Drug Administration–approved for purposes other than brain injuries; however, preclinical and clinical studies have shown their efficacy in ameliorating the various detrimental outcomes of TBI.

scholarly journals Traumatic Brain Injury and Sexuality: User Experience Study of an Information Toolkit (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Marier-Deschênes ◽  
Marie-Pierre Gagnon ◽  
Julien Déry ◽  
Marie-Eve Lamontagne
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
User Experience ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Semistructured Interview ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Functional Impairments ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Severe Tbi ◽  
Written Materials

BACKGROUND After having sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), individuals are at risk of functional impairments in information processing, abstract reasoning, executive functioning, attention, and memory. This affects different aspects of communicative functioning. Specific strategies can be adopted to improve the provision of health information to individuals with TBI, including the development of written materials and nonwritten media. OBJECTIVE A user-centered design was adopted to codevelop four audiovisual presentations, a double-sided information sheet, and a checklist aimed at informing individuals about post-TBI sexuality. The last phase of the project was the assessment of the user experience of the information toolkit, based on the User Experience Honeycomb model. METHODS Overall, two small group discussions and one individual semistructured interview were conducted with individuals with moderate to severe TBI. RESULTS The participants mentioned that the toolkit was easily usable and would have fulfilled a need for information on post-TBI sexuality during or after rehabilitation. They mostly agreed that the minimalist visual content was well-organized, attractive, and relevant. The information was easily located, the tools were accessible in terms of reading and visibility, and the content was also considered credible. CONCLUSIONS Aspects such as usability, usefulness, desirability, accessibility, credibility, and findability of information were viewed positively by the participants. Further piloting of the toolkit is recommended to explore its effects on the awareness of the potential sexual repercussions of TBI in individuals and partners.

scholarly journals Ms Teresa Grimm, MA – The Effect of Music on Patients with Disorders of Consciousness

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Disorders Of Consciousness ◽  
Loss Of Consciousness ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Department Of Music

Disorders of consciousness may arise from a wide range of incidents, diseases and conditions, including traumatic brain injury, infection or tumours. With her collaborators, Ms Teresa Grimm, at the Department of Music in Carl von Ossietzky University, Germany, is exploring the existing literature and delivering novel findings on the effect of exposure to music for patients who are living with a condition which results in a loss of consciousness.

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