Know your audience – and your context! – for setting up the SALSA research protocol

With the holidays in sight, at RRD we are finalizing the general outline of the evaluation protocol for SALSA Health for the Dutch pilot site before taking our summer break. As SALSA Health is to be used within physiotherapy practices, we have contacted physiotherapists at a local clinic to discuss implementation and evaluation of the platform. Through these discussions, we found a perfect research opportunity for SALSA Health. For the evaluation of SALSA Health in the Netherlands, investigate the added value of the platform within group rehabilitation sessions of COPD patients.

In the Netherlands, group rehabilitation sessions are part of the standard physiotherapy for various patient groups, such as COPD, cardiovascular rehabilitation and fall prevention. Most physiotherapy clinics have large fitness rooms where once or twice a week a group of patients (8-10 people) meet and follow personalized training schemes set by their physiotherapist. During the training session the physiotherapist monitors their performance and gives individualized feedback.

This week we had the opportunity to visit a COPD group rehabilitation session and talk with physiotherapists and group members. This enabled us to get more insights in the people who will use the system and the context in which it will be used.