RRD’s position between the university and the rehabilitation centre is unique, and so is our approach. With our multidisciplinary team, ranging from rehabilitation physicians and psychologists to engineers, movement scientists and programmers, we have the relevant knowledge and experience for the entire chain: from identifying user requirements and the development and testing of prototypes in patient groups to the implementation and evaluation of the technology in actual treatment situations.
Design and implementation
Users across the entire spectrum take centre stage in our design process. In addition, we design not just a product or service, but also the entire care model around it. We map which role the technology can play, develop the business model and create an implementation plan. At an early stage, we determine who plays which role in the process and which interests these parties have. We engage in dialogue with all these parties to match their wishes in the area of care with technology and vice versa. By doing this, we increase the chances of new technology with demonstrated effectiveness actually being used by the therapist and reaching the patient. We deliver not only a technology that is ready for use and scientifically proven, but also the associated care protocols for care professionals, patients, or informal carers.
Evaluation
With the patients’ help, we can test technology still under development for ease of use and acceptance in order to improve the product. For example, we can investigate whether the product is easy and comfortable to use. Based on these findings, we can provide advice for a redesign.
We also perform impact studies. If a technology has been sufficiently developed, we measure whether the technology and the associated care protocol are at least as good in everyday practice as currently available treatments.
Another important focus is adoption: how do you ensure that people actually make use of a new service? Which bottlenecks and barriers play a role? And besides the manager, is the therapist on the work floor also enthusiastic about it?
Projects
PHArA-ON
The aim of the PHArA-ON project is to provide integrated technology platforms for the elderly. Existing technologies will be linked and adapted to the needs of the users. This way, the care for and quality of life of older people can be improved. The project makes use of action research methodology where solutions are designed, implemented and tested with various stakeholders. The Dutch pilot mainly focusses on reducing loneliness, stimulating a healthier eating pattern and increasing physical activity. RRD coordinates the planning and evaluation of the different pilots.
SALSA – Supporting an Active Lifestyle for Seniors
Within SALSA, a service is being developed to support elderly people (55+) with healthy aging. SALSA supports the creation and maintenance of an active lifestyle by offering physical exercises, information and options for planning activities.
FRAIL – online service for treatment frailty older adults
This service exists of an online game with a physical training module, screening features and services to enrich the lives of lonely older adults. Next, domotics, wearables and clinical information systems will be connected, which allows for ample opportunities for big data analysis and intensive follow-up.
Back-UP – Support management of neck and low back pain
The Back-UP project (Horizon 2020) aims to create a prognostic model to support more effective and efficient management of neck and low back pain, based on digital representation of multidimensional clinical information, and automatic assessments of possible interventions.
Please contact
With a background in human movement science (VU University Amsterdam) Stephanie joined RRD in October 2008 as a research assistant on the MoyTel project. After this project she continued working for RRD as PhD student in the field of eHeatlh. End 2014 she successfully defended her PhD thesis: “The added value of telemedicine service for physical rehabilitation”. She worked/works on a number of European and National projects, including MyoTel, CLEAR, PLAYMANCER, Condition Coach, NavMem, PERSSILAA, eWALL and Langgezond.nl, GOAL and Back-Up. In 2015 Stephanie past her GCP-WMO exam (BROK-registration) and she is a member of the CMO Arnhem – Nijmegen. Her work mainly focusses on the (clinical and social) evaluation of eHealth services.
Publications:
Jansen-Kosterink SM, van Velsen LS, Frazer S, Dekker-van Weering MGH, O’Caoimh R, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR (2019). Identification of community-dwelling older adults at risk of frailty using the PERSSILAA screening pathway: a methodological guide and results of a large-scale deployment in the Netherlands. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 504. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6876-0
Jansen-Kosterink SM, Dekker-van Weering M, van Velsen L (2019). Patient acceptance of a telemedicine service for rehabilitation care: a focus group study. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 125, 22-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.01.011
Jansen-Kosterink SM, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR, Hermens HJ (2016). A renewed framework for the evaluation of telemedicine. The Eighth International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine: eTELEMED, Venice, Italy, 57-62.
Jansen-Kosterink SM, Huis in ’t Veld MHA, Wever D, Hermens HJ, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR (2015). Introducing remote physical rehabilitation for patients with chronic disorders by means of telemedicine. Health and Technology, 5(2), 83-90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-015-0111-5
Jansen-Kosterink SM, Huis in ’t Veld MHA, Schönauer C, Kaufmann H, Hermens HJ, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR (2013). A serious exergame for patients suffering from chronic musculoskeletal back and neck pain: a pilot study. Games for Health Journal, 2(5), 299-307. https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2013.0043
Marit studied human movement science in Groningen, with the specialization “Rehabilitation care and care for disabled persons”. She graduated in 2005, whereafter she started as a PhD student at Roessingh Research and Development in the cluster Telemedicine. She received her doctor’s degree in 2011 and from that moment she has been working as a researcher on different projects with the scope being adoption and implementation of telemedicine services for patients with chronic diseases.
Publications:
Dekker-van Weering MGH, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR, Hermens HJ (2016). Adherence to an online exercise program for COPD patients in the home environment- a pilot study. Health and Technology, 6(4), 259-268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-016-0137-3
Dekker-van Weering MGH, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR, Hermens HJ (2015). A pilot study – the potential value of an activity-based feedback system for treatment of individuals with chronic lower back pain. Disability and Rehabilitation, 37(24), 2250-2256. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2015.1019009
Dekker-van Weering MGH, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR, Hermens HJ. Do personalized feedback messages about activity patterns stimulate patients with chronic low back pain to change their activity behavior on a short term notice? Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 37(2), 81-89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-012-9181-6
van Weering MGH, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR, Hermens HJ (2010). The relationship between objectively and subjectively measured activity levels in people with chronic low back pain. Clinical Rehabilitation, 25(3), 256-263. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215510380828
van Weering MGH, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR, Tönis TM, Hermens HJ (2008). Daily physical activities in chronic lower back pain patients assessed with accelerometry. European Journal of Pain, 13(6), 649-654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpain.2008.07.005
Lex is the coordinator of the eHealth cluster within Roessingh Research and Development. Besides, he holds a research line in the area of requirements engineering for telemedicine services. His expertises include user-centered design, requirements engineering, information design, personalization, privacy by design, and designing for trust. Before Lex started working at RRD, he completed a PhD in the area of technical communication and worked as post-doctoral researcher at the Dutch National Institute for Health and the Environment.
Lex coordinates multiple European and national projects in the area of telemedicine, aimed at, for example, frail older adults, usability testing of eHealth technology, or user-centered design. In this, his guiding principle is that health innovation is far more than designing technology alone. It is a process innovation of which technology is part. He also guides PhD students (in collaboration with the University of Twente, Wageningen University and Chalmers University of Technology), as well as MSc students. Lex is associate editor for BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making.
Publications:
van Velsen LS, Tabak M, Hermens HJ (2017). Measuring patient trust in telemedicine services: development of a survey instrument and its validation for an anticoagulation web-service. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 97, 52-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2016.09.009
van Velsen LS, Wildevuur S, Flierman I, van Schooten BW, Tabak M, Hermens HJ (2015). Trust in telemedicine portals for rehabilitation care: an exploratory focus group study with patients and healthcare professionals. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 16(11). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-016-0250-2
van Velsen LS, Illario M, Jansen-Kosterink SM, Crola C, Di Somma C, Colao A, Vollenbroek-Hutten MMR (2015). A community-based, technology-supported health service for detecting and preventing frailty among older adults: a participatory design development process. Journal of Aging Research, Article ID 216084, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/216084
van Velsen LS, Wentzel J, van Gemert-Pijnen JEWC (2013). Designing eHealth that Matters via a Multidisciplinary Requirements Development Approach. JMIR Research Protocols, 2(1), e21. https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.2547
van Velsen LS, Beaujean D, van Gemert-Pijnen JEWC (2013). Why mobile health app overload drives us crazy, and how to restore the sanity. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 13(23). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-13-23
Link to Personal website
Link to ORCID profile
Gerdienke is a human movement scientist, with a PhD in the evaluation of robotic devices for rehabilitation of the arm after stroke. As senior researcher, she currently leads the research topic on therapeutic rehabilitation technology (Active Therapeutic Devices), involving supervision of 4 PhD students. She coordinates and supervises multiple European and national projects, in particular regarding clinical evaluation, collaborating extensively with care organisations, technical universities and companies. Her research is focused on applying technology for improvement of arm and hand functionality in clinical practice or at home, evaluating its impact and understanding associated neurological and biomechanical working mechanisms.
Publications:
Nijenhuis SM, Prange-Lasonder GB, Stienen AHA, Rietman JS, Buurke JH (2017). Effects of training with a passive hand orthosis and games at home in chronic stroke: a pilot randomised controlled trial. Clinical Rehabilitation, 31(2), 207-216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215516629722
Radder B, Prange-Lasonder GB, Kottink AIR, Gaasbeek L, Holmberg J, Meyer T, Melendez-Calderon A, Ingvast J, Buurke JH, Rietman JS (2016). A wearable soft-robotic glove enables hand support in ADL and rehabilitation: a feasibility study on the assistive functionality. Journal of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Engineering, 3(0), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055668316670553
Krabben T, Prange GB, Kobus HJ, Rietman JS, Buurke JH (2016). Application of the Teager Kaiser Energy Operator in an autonomous burst detector to create onset and offset profiles of forearm muscles during reach-to-grasp movements. Acta of Bioengineering and Biomechanics, 18(4), 135-144. https://doi.org/10.5277/ABB-00471-2015-02
Prange GB, Kottink AIR, Buurke JH, Eckhardt MMEM, van Keulen-Rouweler BJ, Ribbers G, Rietman JS (2015). The effect of arm support combined with rehabilitation games on upper extremity function in sub-acute stroke: a randomized controlled trial. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 29(2), 174-182. https://doi.org/10.1177/1545968314535985
Kottink AIR, Prange GB, Krabben T, Rietman JS, Buurke JH (2014). Gaming and conventional exercises for improvement of arm function after stroke: a randomized controlled pilot study. Games for Health Journal, 3(3), 184-191. https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2014.0026