Applications to support cross-sectoral, person-centred and empowering stroke rehabilitation. Development, implementation, test, and evaluation of two co-designed applications

The overall aim of this thesis was to develop, implement, test and evaluate the co-designed content
of two known application (app) platforms, Mit Sygehus and Genoptræn.dk to support cross-sectoral,
person-centred and empowering stroke rehabilitation for stroke survivors and their significant
others. Medical Research Councils (MRC) flexible and pragmatic framework for developing and
evaluating complex interventions (1,2) guided the research process. First, unmet needs regarding
stroke rehabilitation from the perspectives of stroke survivors, their significant others and therapists
employed in different stroke rehabilitation settings were identified in three pre-studies. This
knowledge was supplemented with a scoping review on existing apps to support stroke
rehabilitation. Then, the content of two known app-solutions was co-designed based on
stakeholders’ priorities and tested in cross-sectoral stroke rehabilitation. Finally, a process
evaluation of the acceptability of the content of the two apps to support cross-sectoral, personcentred and empowering stroke rehabilitation was undertaken (1,2). Stroke survivors, their
significant others, therapists from various rehabilitation settings, volunteer organizations, appdevelopers and researchers were engaged throughout the research process. The purpose of
stakeholder engagement was to facilitate and ensure the development of more acceptable apps,
which support their implementation and uptake in different stroke rehabilitation settings (1,3,4).