Simulated In-Home Teletreatment for Anomia
By Dechene, Lambert; Tousignant, Michel; Boissy, Patrick; Macoir, Joel; Heroux, Serge; Hamel, Mathieu; Briere, Simon; Page, Catherine; International Journal of Telerehabilitation, Volume 3, Number 2, pages 3-10Publication Date: Fall 2011
Pilot study explored the feasibility of in-home teletreatment for patients with post-stroke anomia, defined as difficulty in word finding. Participants were a man aged 80 years and two women aged 71 and 79 years with anomia following stroke. For all participants, a videoconferencing system was used encompassing a wide angle camera and omnidirectional microphone mounted over a 20 inch LCD screen displaying the video received from the other end. Audio was played using external speakers, and a touch screen tablet PC was added to the in-home system to allow participant interaction. Sessions were established using a high speed Internet connection. Participants received 12 speech therapy teletreatments of two sessions per week for 6 weeks, aimed at improving confrontation naming skills. Half of the failed items from a set of 120 preselected stimuli, named Block A, were trained during treatment, while the other half, Block B, served as controls. Variables measured were (1) efficacy of treatment as assessed by performance on Block A versus Block B stimuli, and (2) participants’ satisfaction with teletreatment using a French adaptation of the Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire. All participants showed a clinically relevant improvement on confrontation naming of trained items and less improvement for untrained items. High satisfaction scores were also obtained on the questionnaire, above a 57 out of a possible score of 60. Study limitations and implications for more in-depth research on teletreatment with this population are discussed.
Published by: University Library System, University of Pittsburgh (Website:http://www.library.pitt.edu/)
RERC on Telerehabilitation (Web Site: http://www.rerctr.pitt.edu/index.html )
Link to text: http://telerehab.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/Telerehab/article/view/6075
