TY - JOUR
T1 - Designing Virtual Coaching Solutions
T2 - Design and Evaluation of a Digital Health Intervention for Rehabilitation
AU - Schlieter, Hannes
AU - Gand, Kai
AU - Weimann, Thure Georg
AU - Sandner, Emanuel
AU - Kreiner, Karl
AU - Thoma, Steffen
AU - Liu, Jin
AU - Caprino, Massimo
AU - Corbo, Massimo
AU - Seregni, Agnese
AU - Tropea, Peppino
AU - Del Pino, Rocio
AU - Carlos, Juan
AU - Esteban, Go´mez
AU - Gabilondo, Inigo
AU - Lacraru, Andreea Elena
AU - Busnatu, Stefan Sebastian
N1 - © The Author(s) 2024
PY - 2024/5/29
Y1 - 2024/5/29
N2 - Especially older persons are prone to disabilities and chronic diseases. These chronic conditions pose a worldwide challenge, leading to deteriorating health, economic strain, loss of life, and a decline in the quality of life (QoL). Therefore, healthcare institutions seek to enhance their strategies for disease prevention and management to uphold the well-being of the community. This leads to the need to regain independence and improve QoL to properly rehabilitate the patients. Virtual Coaches (VCs) in the form of Embodied Conversational Agents are seen as a relevant digital intervention to support the continuity of care. The paper at hand reports on a Design Science Research project about implementing a VC solution to support older patients' home rehabilitation. The study underpins four pivotal design principles: Adaptivity, Coaching Strategy, Multi-user Interface, and Sustainable Infrastructure. The final artifact was tested with 80 patients which were supported in continuing their inpatient rehabilitation at home by using a VC. The evaluation shows both positive results for usability and acceptance of the intervention for four different use cases and a positive impact on the QoL. Given the comprehensive clinical evaluation, the system represents a safe and appealing solution for ensuring the continuity of medical rehabilitation care and the access to personalized cognitive and motor function treatments.
AB - Especially older persons are prone to disabilities and chronic diseases. These chronic conditions pose a worldwide challenge, leading to deteriorating health, economic strain, loss of life, and a decline in the quality of life (QoL). Therefore, healthcare institutions seek to enhance their strategies for disease prevention and management to uphold the well-being of the community. This leads to the need to regain independence and improve QoL to properly rehabilitate the patients. Virtual Coaches (VCs) in the form of Embodied Conversational Agents are seen as a relevant digital intervention to support the continuity of care. The paper at hand reports on a Design Science Research project about implementing a VC solution to support older patients' home rehabilitation. The study underpins four pivotal design principles: Adaptivity, Coaching Strategy, Multi-user Interface, and Sustainable Infrastructure. The final artifact was tested with 80 patients which were supported in continuing their inpatient rehabilitation at home by using a VC. The evaluation shows both positive results for usability and acceptance of the intervention for four different use cases and a positive impact on the QoL. Given the comprehensive clinical evaluation, the system represents a safe and appealing solution for ensuring the continuity of medical rehabilitation care and the access to personalized cognitive and motor function treatments.
KW - virtual coaches
KW - Telehealth
KW - Virtual coaching
KW - Digital health
KW - Rehabilitation care
KW - Design science
M3 - Article
SP - 1
EP - 24
JO - Business Information Systems Engineering
JF - Business Information Systems Engineering
ER -