1. Department ofDepartment
Veterans Affairs of Veterans Affairs
Best Practices for Team-Based
Assistive Technology
Design Courses
Mary Goldberg, MEd
Education & Outreach Coordinator
Jon Pearlman, PhD
Assistant Professor, RST, SHRS
Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Human Engineering Research Laboratories

2. Department of Veterans Affairs
Outline
• Background & Introduction
• Literature review
• Methods
• Results
• Best Practice Recommendations

3. Department of Veterans Affairs
Background: Departmental Structure
• Rehabilitation Science & Technology
• Human Engineering Research
Laboratories
• Veterans Affairs
• QoLT
• Education & Outreach
Programs

4. Department of Veterans Affairs
Background: Product Development Training
• TIPeD program funded by NCIIA
• Augment ASPIRE & QoLT REU programs
• Led to development of design ecosystem & course series

5. Department of Veterans Affairs
Background: Design Curricula
Fall Spring Summer
TIPeD-P: [facilitated
in collaboration with
TIPeD-C: Rehab the NSF REU
TIPeD-C: Design Project program] and with
Fundamentals of business and law
Rehab Design and students
Fabrication
FabLab RET
FabLab
RET ELeVATE

6. Department of Veterans Affairs
Background: Motivation AT
• Assistive technology & participation in society
• Inappropriate designs
• Design shortcomings
• Improve independence and safety of users
• 3rd party payers
• Academic institutions & technology transfer

7. Department of Veterans Affairs
Background: Product Development
• Design & fabrication facilities
• Commercialized 5 products
• 3 patents awarded; 9 pending
• Research & user-driven innovations
• Business partners
• Multidisciplinary faculty, students, & staff

8. Department of Veterans Affairs
Goals
1. Literature Review
2. Case Study on HRS 2706/2718
– Course Evaluation
3. Generate Best Practice
Recommendations

9. Department of Veterans Affairs
Literature Review: Themes
• Projects
• Process
• Recommendations for Improving the Process

10. Department of Veterans Affairs
Literature Review: Projects
• Range from low-tech to high-tech24, 26, 21
• Low-tech often focus on international or low-cost products to
broaden access
• Primary (ADL) to secondary (IADL) to “for fun” (recreational)
products1, 26
• Client-based (individual & group)
• Promote collaborations while benefitting local use3
• Persons with disabilities as clients
– Demonstrate inequities & lack of resources4
– Consider additional needs & universal design18

11. Department of Veterans Affairs
Literature Review: Process
• Students uncomfortable with lack of instruction4
• Products meeting users’ needs as correct solution
• Profession-specific language1
– Process-oriented vs. solution-oriented
– Engagement in process vs. didactic learning
Ulrich & Eppinger, 2011

12. Department of Veterans Affairs
Literature Review
Process: Design with Service Provision in Mind23
• Evaluation of client needs and skills for assistive
technology
• Acquisition of assistive technologies
• Selection, design, repair, and fabrication of assistive
technology systems
• Coordination of services with other therapies
• Training of both individuals with disabilities and
those working with them to use the technology
effectively

13. Department of Veterans Affairs
Case Study of HRS 2706/2718
• Pre/post survey
– Mixed methods including 7 short answer & 2 Likert
series related to design, rehabilitation, and career
perceptions & skills
• MBTI
– Used to identify team roles
• Mid-Point interviews with all students
• Ethnographic observations by co-instructor in-
person and online

14. Department of Veterans Affairs
Course Overview: Learning Objectives
• Be able to
– Execute needs assessment for a client;
– Develop product concepts;
– Convert product concepts and specifications into a prototype;
– Perform concept refinement & selection to system & detail design
(emphasizing participatory action design through all phases);
– Develop a prototyping and testing plan;
– Fabricate and test the prototype;
– Interact with a client in a professional capacity as rehabilitation engineer
– Investigate IP considerations and methods of technology transfer.

15. Department of Veterans Affairs
Course Overview: Project
• Assistive feeding device for a woman with a progressive
disorder

16. Department of Veterans Affairs
Quantitative Results (n=7)
• Significant increase (p=0.03, M=.571, SD=.535) in students’
identification and comfort with his/her individual team role
• Nearly significant increase pre/post class
– In self-assessment on confidence in various skills (p=0.07, M=.258 , SD=.31)
– In knowledge of commercially available assistive technology (p=0.07, M=.429,
SD=.787)
– In confidence in design skills (p=0.07, M=.429 , SD=.535)
• Nearly significant Relationship between gender and scores (p=.07,
M=.144, SD=.929)

17. Department of Veterans Affairs
Example Qualitative Results
• Before: “I think I am learning a lot of things, that will allow me to
succeed in the field. Perhaps I will need to have more real world
experience with clients, and also learn more technical things,
(Electronics, Programing, design software) to feel more confident in
applying technology to rehabilitation.”
• After: “I feel I am part of the community. It gives me satisfaction that my
designs could someday help a lot of individuals in ways that a consumer
device rarely does. I am committed to the field and would like to see it
grow further and increase the involvement of end users in the design
process.”

18. Department of Veterans Affairs
Recommendations: Lit review
Recommendation Why?
Helps train system integration,
Use multidisciplinary teams increased responsibility, teamwork
and competition
Helps with commercialization and
Add projects to database
avoids repeated solutions
Disseminate Training Modules Supports methods improvement
Apply for funding and publish results Supports commercialization
Share information related to tech- Ensures that all parties are aware of
transfer and liability legal status of invention

19. Department of Veterans Affairs
Recommendations: Class
Recommendation Why?
Allows for transparency and trust with
Identify client through reliable clinical
client, full understanding of their
partner
clinical needs
Conveys expectations related to
Allow for transparency between
frequency of communication and
instructors, client, and team(s)
liability with products
Use a process-oriented vs. solution- Ensures students execute due
oriented product development model diligence and complete necessary steps
Use a project management software to
facilitate and archive communication Organize weekly objectives
and outputs
Facilitate client interaction frequently
More communication results
through in-person, phone, and online
in better design
communication

20. Department of Veterans Affairs
Recommendations: Class
Recommendation Why?
Seek to develop professional role
Provide opportunities that are not
confidence to inspire students’
common in didactic curricula
commitment to engineering/rehab
Publish student designs on Motivates students and enables
repositories creativity, disseminates design
Integrate design competitions and Interests potential investors and
commercialization plans into teaches students about
deliverables commercialization
Incorporate formal and informal Increases’ students confidence to
education opportunities tackle design problems

21. Department of Veterans Affairs
Acknowledgements & Questions
• Financial support
– University of Pittsburgh
– Human Engineering Research Laboratories
– NCIIA
– NSF QOLT ERC
• Our client
• HRS 2706/2718 students