Innovative Methods to Co-design, Develop and Evaluate Personalized Approaches to Mobility Programming for Adults with Physical Disability

Research Objectives: To develop mobility programming using participatory methods grounded in integrated knowledge translation (iKT) principles which enable meaningful involvement of patients, students, and rehabilitation care providers in a co-design process. Ultimately, this project aims to employ mobility programming in a large-scale pragmatic trial using a personalized participative intervention.

Design: The study is being conducted in two phases:
Phase 1: involves information gathered in an environmental scan of existing adapted physical activity and mobility programming across Canada to inform the co-design process.
Phase 2: involves a co-design approach, where students and persons with lived experience (i.e., patients or caregivers) work alongside researchers, clinicians, and data scientists to identify options for mobility programming and decision points to guide personalization.

Setting: Gray Centre for Mobility and Activity based at Parkwood Institute (St. Joseph’s Healthcare), a tertiary care rehabilitation centre linked with Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

Participants: The project team includes persons who have lived experience (i.e., former, or current patients) with a neurological condition (i.e., stroke, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis), as well as researchers, rehabilitation care providers, trainees, and data scientists affiliated with Parkwood Institute and/or Western University.

Interventions: The mobility programming developed in the co-design process will inform a pragmatic trial involving a personalized participative intervention.

Main Outcome Measures: N/A

Results: Thus far, the environmental scan includes 26 programs with 11 interviews condcuted with program leaders. Information gained from the interviews pertaining to mobility and physical activity programming structure, mode of delivery, type of instructors, and population served have been instrumental in informing programming within the Gray Centre. Information gathered from the e-scan interviews will advise a sustainable approach to programming at Parkwood.

Conclusions: Developing an innovative, co-design approach to personalized participative interventions enables meaningful integration of all stakeholders’ preferences. By accounting for stakeholder preferences, we can expect that we will achieve greater patient impact, relevance, and sustainability in terms of physical activity participation.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts
Olivia Crozier BHSc, Stephanie Cimino PhD(c), Jordan Eggiman-Ketter, Julianne Hong BHSc, Joshua Stoikos MSc, Dalton L. Wolfe, PhD