ASHA 2019: Resources for clinicians

1. What digital therapy approaches are being used with individuals with acquired neurogenic disorders,
2. What enablers and barriers influence the use of technology outside of the clinic, and
3. Clinician and client perspectives in using technology as a part of the rehabilitation journey.

Special guest and survivor of stroke, Patty Geer, will add to the discussion, speaking with her speech-language pathologist about her real-life experience using digital therapy after her stroke.

There is a pre-session handout available.

Presentation overview: Enablers & Barriers to Practicing Digital Therapy at Home

While recent research findings on technology-based therapy approaches show promise, successful adoption of technology outside of research or the clinic is not well understood. To further investigate this question, The Learning Corp conducted a retrospective analysis of Constant Therapy (CT) data where participants consented to their anonymized data being analyzed for research. CT is a personalized digital therapy program used by people with speech, language, and cognitive deficits. It is used in the clinic as well as at home, providing an opportunity for individuals to get more practice. This sample includes 2,850 patients with stroke or TBI.

The activity metrics analyzed were: 1) number of active weeks of therapy; 2) the average number of active therapy days per week; 3) the total number of therapeutic sessions completed during the first 20 weeks of program access.

Results suggest that gender, time post-onset, education, and state do not pose a significant barrier to engagement. Although older users (>70) were less active than the 51-70 group, they still showed considerable activity, suggesting that adults at any age can benefit from accessing digital therapies. Although there were more urban users than rural users, rural users who did access CT were more active, suggesting that while there might be some barriers for individuals in rural areas to access technology-based healthcare tools, those who do are actively engaged and can benefit from the digital therapies.

Presentation overview: Feasibility of a Virtual Clinical Trial that Includes Assessment and Treatment of Persons with Aphasia

This session will share preliminary findings on a fully virtual clinical trial using Constant Therapy as the experimental intervention for people with aphasia (PWA). This study aims to 1) evaluate the outcomes of PWA remotely using technology-based therapy at home, and 2) assess the feasibility of a remote assessment procedure. The final presentation can be found here.

Additional clinician resources

You may find these additional resources of value in your daily practice.