Sustainable Implementation of Digital Assistive Technologies in Health Care Through a Simplified Interaction and Control Platform: Protocol for a Cocreative Feasibility Study

Abstract

Background

With the expected increase in the number of people needing care and the increasing shortage of skilled care workers, new care concepts are required. Therefore, digital assistive technologies (DATs), especially robotics, can improve the situation of people with different needs and create opportunities for participation. For a human-technology interaction to have a high level of usability, DAT’s meaningfulness and effectiveness must be accessible to end users. Significant barriers to the use of DATs in health care are the lack of controllability and adaptivity, as well as control functions that are too complex.

Objective

The objective of this paper is to develop an interaction and control platform that is understandable to a layperson and has a programming interface for DAT interactions. The innovation consists of the expansion of usage and interaction options for carers of existing DAT in a more individual manner. This is to be achieved by combining modern interactive media, a modular software architecture, and already available DAT.

Methods

The project is planned as a mixed methods study with a longitudinal design, with multiple user involvements and measurement times in collaboration with 3 care facilities in Germany. When assessing technologies, the satisfaction of the basic human needs of competence, connection, and autonomy plays an important role in the actual use of the technology. These needs can be measured in the form of usability (System Usability Scale), intention to use (Technology Usage Inventory), and satisfaction with the carers’ needs (Technology-Based Experience of Need Satisfaction). In the qualitative assessment, user experience is recorded using the think-aloud method and focus groups in order to obtain information about potential improvements of the platform.

Results

The EduXBot (Educational Exploration Robot Application Platform) project was initiated in January 2023 and is scheduled to conclude in December 2025, at which point the project’s final results are expected to be available. The initial results were attained in the summer of 2024 when the final concept for the platform prototype was developed. In November 2024, an initial prototype of a functional platform for the simplified interaction and control of DAT was evaluated.

Conclusions

It is expected that the open DAT system architecture enables caregivers without any previous technical knowledge to assemble their individual DAT functional portfolio. The results of the project will provide low-threshold access to interaction options for existing DAT as well as expand the usage of such technologies in an individual and patient-centered way.

Trial Registration

Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien DRKS00034195; https://drks.de/search/de/trial/DRKS00034195

International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)

DERR1-10.2196/63089