Mid Sweden University

The global phenomenon with an increased percentage of older adults is clearly identified in the Mid Sweden region. With a population that is older than the average, the need for medical care and rehabilitation is also higher. All diseases have their specialised treatments and rehabilitation requirements, and this study has a focus on defining requirements for game-based motoric stroke rehabilitation. The important research question to answer was: How might a game-based approach to motoric stroke rehabilitation support the idea of independent living?

This study was carried out as a Requirement-Focused Design Science project, with the aim to define requirements for a stroke rehabilitation testbed. Requirements have been outlined with the Design science idea of asking the experts to explain their predictions of what they think will produce the effects. Eight domain experts with different professional roles were interviewed to obtain a multi-stakeholder perspective on technology enhanced and game-based stroke rehabilitation. Patterns and themes in the interview answers created categories in a thematic analysis. Furthermore, the concept was discussed with research colleagues with rich experience of e-health.

All of the interviewed experts had a surprisingly positive attitude toward the game-based approach, but with the strong recommendation of an individualised rehabilitation schedule. There are large variations in both the rehabilitation needs and the stroke patients’ digital skills. An interesting comment from one of the informants was to involve dancing activities, as a complement to the game-based rehabilitation. Out of the three discussed stroke rehabilitation categories: cognitive, motoric and speech rehabilitation, motoric stroke rehabilitation seems to be the one with the highest potential for a game-based approach to support independent living. The outlined requirements could be an important part in the future implementation of a testbed for stroke rehabilitation