Assessments of a novel digital follow-up tool Rehabkompassen(®) to identify rehabilitation needs among stroke patients in an outpatient setting

INTRODUCTION: It remains a huge challenge to identify individual rehabilitation needs in a time-efficient manner for providing patient-tailored rehabilitation during the continuum of stroke care. We have recently demonstrated the usefulness of a paper-version Rehab-Compass as a follow-up tool. The aim of the current study was to develop a digital version of the Rehab-Compass and evaluate its usability and feasibility. METHODS: The novel digital tool Rehabkompassen(®) was developed by an iterative and participatory design process. Patients’ rehabilitation needs were visualized by the tool and used before, during, and after the consultation. The usability and feasibility of the tool was assessed by task completion rate, the System Usability Scale, and satisfaction questionnaires among 2 physicians and 24 adult stroke patients in an outpatient clinical setting. RESULTS: Rehabkompassen(®) identified and graphically visualized a panoramic view of the stroke patients’ multidimensional needs in individual- and group levels. The instrument appeared to be feasible and time efficient in clinical use with a 100% overall task completion rate for both patients and physicians. A majority of the patients reported that it was very easy or fairly easy to answer the digital questionnaires and to understand their own digital Rehab-Compass graph. Two physicians reported a high mean score on the System Usability Scale (95/100) and were positive about using the tool in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The current results indicated that Rehabkompassen(®) was a feasible, useful, and time-saving follow-up tool for the identification of rehabilitation needs among stroke survivors in the post-acute continuum of care after stroke. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of the digital instrument among stroke patients.