Description

The main aim of the EXTENSIBLE-project is the development of a rating platform for assistive technologies (ATs) and assistive devices (ADs) for people with epilepsy (called EpiRate). EpiRate will be integrated with EpiDat, an already existing knowledge management system for ATs. Despite the high interest in using ATs and ADs, the lack of knowledge about them is a barrier to their wider adoption. To fill this gap, we are developing a knowledge and feedback management system, including a database containing information about ATs and ADs suitable for people with epilepsy and a web-based platform
to collect reviews and feedback from everyday use. The long-term goal of the project is to improve the adoption of ATs and ADs for people with epilepsy and enhance the counselling process. The project takes place at a large tertiary-care centre for people with epilepsy in Germany.

In the Innovation area we would like to present the web-based rating platform EpiRate. EpiRate is a tool for the systematic collection of feedback from people with epilepsy, their caregivers and medical staff on aspects such as usability and reliability that they can report from everyday use of their ATs and ADs. Currently there is no way to collect and share feedback on ATs or ADs. However, real-life feedback from everyday usage could provide valuable insights into what is good or bad about a product and as a result this knowledge could improve the matching of ATs or ADs to people with epilepsy, their needs and their
specific contexts.

Once feedback is received through EpiRate, it will be integrated into the knowledge and feedback management system for the respective products on a regular basis. Due to the network security constraints of the tertiary-care centre, the rating platform has to be a standalone website, outside of the centre’s network. Therefore, a workstream must be created and implemented to extract the data from the rating platform and integrate it into the knowledge and feedback management system.

As a model this standalone rating platform can also meet other requirements and thus become interesting for a variety of (potential) users and contexts. Especially the combination of an open-source rating platform with an internal (data protective) system may be highly relevant for users.

Presenter

Lena Marie Schäckermann, Dr. Ellen Schack