UnderstandSCI.com: A Patient-Centered, Educational Website for Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation
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Date
2014-03-25
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
In 2013, the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center estimated there could be as many as 332,000 people living with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) in the United States with an estimated 12,000 new SCIs each year. Every SCI patient has different nerve fibers damaged and a unique medical background that requires an individualized education.
The Comprehensive Integrated Inpatient Rehabilitation Program, located at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, MD, and staffed by Johns Hopkins Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation faculty, has an interdisciplinary team that utilizes the expertise of physiatry (rehabilitation medicine), rehabilitation psychology, speech language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and nursing. This team is tasked with communicating the complex anatomy and physiology of SCIs and associated complications to patients.
Educational materials for SCI patients have been predominantly text-based with line drawings, and therefore, dependent on the literacy levels of consumers. More recently, online visual aids have been developed to enhance learning opportunities by enabling users to interact with educational material across multiple modalities (e.g. visual, auditory, touch). However, these visual aids are not currently available for SCI patients in a comprehensive, reliable form. The purpose of this project was to develop an educational website that conveys medical information to SCI patients and families.
The creation of the website began with a needs assessment to gather as many opinions as possible to determine where dynamic visual assets in the education of SCI patients are most needed. Once the topics on which to focus were chosen, a combination of three-dimensional models and two- dimensional illustrations were created to complete five interactive modules, five animations, and
one interactive WebGL model. These visual solutions were combined into a responsive Wordpress template. The website is touchscreen compatible and can be easily accessed using a variety of devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smart phones.
UnderstandSCI.com is a web-based educational tool designed to engage patients in the learning process through illustrations, animations, and interactive features. This project offers rehabilitation providers a resource to convey information about SCI and relevant secondary complications to patients and families.
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Keywords
patient-centered, spinal cord injury, medical illustration, website, responsive, interactive, interactive modules, Edge Animate, Wordpress, animations, Web GL, 3D, model, MedStar, rehabilitation