RecoverNow: A mobile tablet-based therapy platform for early stroke rehabilitation

INTRODUCTION: Stroke survivors frequently experience a range of post-stroke deficits. Specialized stroke rehabilitation improves recovery, especially if it is started early post-stroke. However, resource limitations often preclude early rehabilitation. Mobile technologies may provide a platform for stroke survivors to begin recovery when they might not be able to otherwise. The study objective was to demonstrate the feasibility of RecoverNow, a tablet-based stroke recovery platform aimed at delivering speech and cognitive therapy. METHODS: We recruited a convenience sample of 30 acute stroke patients to use RecoverNow for up to 3 months. Allied health professionals assigned specific applications based on standard of care assessments. Participants were encouraged to take home the RecoverNow tablets upon discharge from acute care. The study team contacted participants to return for a follow-up interview 3 months after enrollment. The primary outcome of interest was feasibility, defined using 5 facets: recruitment rate, adherence rate, retention rate, the proportion of successful follow-up interventions, and protocol deviations. We tracked barriers to tablet-based care as a secondary outcome. RESULTS: We successfully recruited 30 of 62 eligible patients in 15 weeks (48% recruitment rate). Participants were non-adherent to tablet-based therapy inside and outside of acute care, using RecoverNow for a median of 12 minutes a day. Retention was high with 23 of 30 patients participating in follow-up interviews (77% retention rate) and all but 3 of the 23 interviews (87%) were successfully completed. Only 2 major protocol deviations occurred: one enrollment failure and one therapy protocol violation. Barriers to tablet-based care were frequently encountered by study participants with many expressing the assigned applications were either too easy or too difficult. CONCLUSIONS: Acute stroke patients are interested in attempting tablet-based stroke rehabilitation and are easily recruited early post-stroke. However, tablet-based therapy may be challenging due to patient, device and system-related barriers. Reducing the frequency of common barriers will be essential to keeping patients engaged in tablet-based therapy.