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Table 13 Summary of open questions (Q44) and comments (Q45)

From: Technology-aided assessments of sensorimotor function: current use, barriers and future directions in the view of different stakeholders

Research Engineers

Questions

 • Will insurance companies be willing to reimburse for technology-aided assessment with the current level of standardization and output metrics?

 • How to combine diverse technologies and the lack of clarity on what exactly to measure? What is the way forward for both these issues?

Comments

 • It seems that standardization, clinical use, and reimbursement mechanisms are a bit of a chicken and egg problem: standardization requires use, use requires reimbursement, and reimbursement requires standardization.

Clinicians

Questions

 • How to interpret and standardize technical outcome parameters?

 • Why don’t technology developers collect more information from clinical therapists and patients?

Comments

 • There is a need for better access to affordable technology for clinical use.

 • An objective sensory measurement tool would be clinically useful.

 • Assessment must be reliable, meaningful, simple to administer and learn.

 • Technology failures cannot occur. We cannot use the time of clinicians and patients by using technically unreliable tools.

Basic Scientists

Questions

 • What is really important to assess for clinicians, therapists, and patients? Are they aligned?

 • How do researchers developing outcome measures based on neuroscientific principles convince clinicians to trust and use these new tools?

Comments

 • “… effects of TBI injuries and stroke are more clearly reflected in movement rather than in imaging, as is improvement due to rehab. It is time to use movement science to do a composite assessment of brain-body and to start building tools which can sense accurately and with reliability.

 • “There is significant under-estimation of current pressures on clinicians in the public sector. Certain assessments are mandated by Govt. agencies, even though they have limited usefulness clinically. Departments of Health also need to be included in education about technology.”

 • There is a need for standardization and widespread implementation.

Medical Industry

Comments

There are standard requirements of any measurement tool, e.g., validity, reliability, sensitivity to change, inter and intra-rater reliability, training. It is important that these are evaluated in a standardized way.

Others

Questions

What is the best way to share current research outcomes for clinical therapists to be up-to-date on the latest findings? Such sharing of knowledge can advocate the gradual implementation of technology in clinical activities at different organizational levels.

Patients

Comments

“It is important to consider how much time an assessment should take. This time is taken from the rehab time!”