Abstract
BackgroundImpaired motor function is one of the early symptoms shown in patients with Parkinson Disease (PD). For this reason, rehabilitative interventions have been used for many years to improve motor and non-motor symptoms. Among them, the use of music therapy has shown benefits in helping to overcome some of the most common motor dysfunction. Addressing the challenge of providing access to this type of therapy, this document presents the collaborative design process to develop a remote training support tool for PD based on music therapy.MethodsA qualitative study with creative co-design methods was used in which different groups of healthcare professionals, patients, and relatives participated in six iterative sessions. Workshops were designed and structured to incrementally discover requirements and needs and validate the proposed prototype ideas.ResultsThe study provided key aspects that were used for the development and validation of the proposed prototypes for the remote music-based training support tool for PD. Up to 20 factors that had a positive and/or negative influence on patient access to training were detected. These factors were classified into three common themes: daily activities and independence, participation in treatment and barriers to daily treatment, and self-management and personalization of information and telecommunication technologies (ICT).ConclusionsThis paper shows the results of a collaborative design process aimed at identifying the different factors, relevant to patients with PD, to improve their access to remote ICT-based training therapy and their expectations regarding alternative therapies, such as music. The participatory design methods and the iterative model used helped overcome many of the traditionally barriers that this type of technological support solutions usually have, facilitating the future participation.
Highlights
Impaired motor function is one of the early symptoms shown in patients with Parkinson Disease (PD)
To address the need to provide daily access to previously presented therapeutic modality as complementary interventions for patients with PD by providing a remote training intervention, This paper presents the design process of an information and communications technology (ICT) solution intended to address the previously presented needs and to provide PD patients with a remote rehabilitation intervention based on the use of music therapy and external rhythmic cueing (ERC) that would complement their standard treatment
Iterative and incremental knowledge gathering about these factors during the study helped design an effective technological-based training program and improve the access of PD patients to daily rehabilitation
Summary
Impaired motor function is one of the early symptoms shown in patients with Parkinson Disease (PD). In conjunction with these interventions, non-pharmacological therapies that involve physical activity and training, such as physical therapy and occupational therapy, have been shown to be useful tools to address the motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease [5, 6]. These therapies complement pharmacological and medical treatment and focus on improving the physical capacity of the patient, as well as the physical and cognitive functional abilities. Physiotherapy has shown its effectiveness in improving one of the most debilitating symptoms of PD, freezing of gait, which involves the sudden inability of a person to walk despite her intention to do so [7, 8]
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