Abstract
Society is currently facing unprecedented technological advances that simultaneously create opportunities and risks. Technology has the potential to revolutionize rehabilitation and redefine the way we think about disability. As more advanced technology becomes available, impairments and the environmental barriers that engender disability can be significantly mitigated. The opportunity to apply technology to rehabilitation following serious injuries or illnesses is becoming more evident. However, the translation of these innovations into practice remains limited and often inequitable. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that not all relevant parties are involved in the decision-making process. Our solution was to create a sociotechnical system, known as HabITec, where people with disabilities, practitioners, funders, researchers, designers and developers can work together and co-create new solutions. Sociotechnical thinking is collaborative, interdisciplinary, adaptive, problem-solving and focused on a shared set of goals. By applying a sociotechnical approach to the healthcare sector, we aimed to minimize the lag in translating new technologies into rehabilitation practice. This collaborative co-design process supports innovation and ensures that technological solutions are practical and meaningful, ethical, sustainable and contextualized. In this conceptual paper, we presented the HabITec model along with the empirical evidence and theories on which it has been built.
Highlights
Technology is fully integrated into our daily lives as a result of high-speed internet and the widespread commercialization of advanced products such as smartphones, networked appliances, Societies 2019, 9, 74; doi:10.3390/soc9040074 www.mdpi.com/journal/societiesSocieties 2019, 9, 74 gaming consoles, artificial intelligence, and virtual assistants
HabITec is a joint initiative of Griffith University, Metro South Health, Microsoft Australia and several non-government organisations that support people with disability
HabITec is based on the application of technology to two main settings
Summary
Technology is fully integrated into our daily lives as a result of high-speed internet and the widespread commercialization of advanced products such as smartphones, networked appliances, Societies 2019, 9, 74; doi:10.3390/soc9040074 www.mdpi.com/journal/societies. Ongoing dialogue between all stakeholders is essential to ensure that new technologies are developed in response to real rehabilitation challenges Collaboration of this kind will ensure ideas are modified and refined until they are fit-for-purpose, the cost of implementation can be considered during the developmental process and necessary practice changes that will support implementation can be addressed. The aim of this conceptual paper was to describe the development of a sociotechnical system that can address the challenges associated with applying technology in rehabilitation and maximize the likelihood that technology will deliver benefits to people with disabilities. We provided a typical example of how HabITec works and drew conclusions about the potential benefits associated with this approach
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