G-3: Dissemination, Utilization and Technical Assistance
Leader: Douglas Hobson, PhD
Support Staff: Joseph K. Ruffing, Communication Specialist; Jean Webb, Administrator
Priorities:
The RERC will engage in a broad range of dissemination, utilization and technical assistance activities:
- Dissemination of RERC outcomes to its primary constituents: researchers, consumers, their caregivers and families, service providers, manufacturers, third party payers and the general public,
- Utilization of the outcomes by all constituents and,
- Provision of technical assistance.
Dissemination
Journal publications: The RERC team members regularly publish research findings in peer reviewed publications such as: VA Journal of R&D, IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitation Engineering, Assistive Technology, Applied Gerontology, Technology and Disability, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and the American Journal of Occupational Therapy. These materials are targeted primarily for researchers and clinicians.
Conference paper presentations: Team leaders, collaborators and students present research papers at no less than six professional conferences annually: RESNA, International Seating Symposium, and IEEE. These materials are targeted primarily for researchers and clinicians.
Student design competitions: Presentations of student design projects is another vehicle for communication of new ideas and concepts to manufacturers and others.
Conference proceedings: most conferences compile and distribute proceedings or abstracts of papers to all attendees. These materials are targeted primarily for researchers, clinicians, students, and manufacturers.
Conference exhibits: The RERC will exhibit at no less than two major conferences annually. RESNA and the International Seating Symposium are primary examples, with others being attended as the opportunity arises. This approach targets largely clinicians, manufacturers, students and some users.
Lectures/laboratories: This is a primary vehicle used to transfer new information to graduate students and others who attend the academic forums within the RST graduate program.
Workshops/seminars: RERC task leaders conduct workshops and seminars both locally and in conjunction with national and international conferences. This activity targets largely clinicians, manufacturers, students, and some users.
Annual reports: The RERC will prepare and widely disseminate annual reports of its activities. This vehicle targets largely clinicians, manufacturers, students, and select users.
Technical reports: Are a good vehicle for documenting and distributing detailed technical information that normally would not appear in a journal publication or annual report. This level of detail is mainly useful to other researchers and manufacturers.
Focus groups: Brings together a segment of the RERC's constituency: primary users, service providers, manufacturers, and researchers to set goals or review early concepts as part of the R&D process. This creates a special opportunity to share information and perspectives that are constructive and useful to all involved participants.
Consumer magazines: A vehicle that can be used effectively to reach a higher concentration of primary users. Examples of publications that have been used are Mainstream, New Mobility, Paraplegic News, and Sports' n Spokes.
Trade journals: A vehicle for reaching primary service providers such as wheelchair and seating practitioners, rehabilitation technology suppliers and manufacturers, and some third-party funders. Team Rehab and Rehabilitation Management are examples of such trade journals.
Standards meetings: Development of standards is an excellent forum for informal one-on-one information exchanges. Standards meetings provide a focused outlet for the RERC's laboratory findings. Once communicated, the findings can have a profound impact on defining the performance standards to which industry will test all future products. As discussed in Task D-4, the RERC will have significant leadership and support involvement in seating standards efforts.
Application guidelines: Although a tool to primarily support utilization, application guidelines can also be a rich source of information for primary users, service providers and product designers. The RERC is dedicated to the production and dissemination of application guidelines, particularly related to the use of voluntary industry standards. Two such documents are currently in the final stages of development.
Media reports: From time to time the public media will take time to direct its fickle interest towards disability and technology. The RERC will respond to these opportunities to disseminate positive outcomes of the NIDRR's RERC program and the contributions by the RERC on W/C Mobility.
Industry partnerships: As seen in TT-Technology Transfer, the RERC is highly committed to the transition of concepts and developments to industry. This involves communication of research and technology findings to industry partners in the form of design specifications, prototype models, interpretations of standards requirements, and information about disability in general.
General: The National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research (NCDDR) has agreed to assist the RERCs with information dissemination (see letter of support). NCDDR has a Newsletter called the Research Exchange, which is widely distributed. Also, NARIC maintains a database of NIDRR publications to which the RERC will make periodic contributions.
Electronic Interactive Delivery: WheelchairNet
In addition to the traditional delivery methods outlined above, we see an opportunity for the creative expansion of our dissemination (and utilization) impact exploiting the rapidly advancing electronic communication technologies, namely the Internet and it's WWW.
This powerful communication tool will allow us to engage many more people in different ways than would be possible using only traditional methods. For example, posted publications, posted application guideline documents, "Ask-the-expert" forums, FAQ postings, searchable reference listings, chat groups, approved industry product standards, meeting minutes, draft standards, can now be made readily available to a world-wide constituency. Soon interactive communications on a world–wide scale will offer a completely new dimension to dissemination, utilization, and technical assistance activities. Our plans for expanding our electronic D&U capacities are embodied in a new virtual community on wheelchair technology that we will develop, WheelchairNet. Since this is a new development, it will be presented in greater detail. The following is the rationale, envisioned activities, and development plan for WheelchairNet.
Utilization
The next stage in the D&U process is the facilitation of the application (utilization) of the disseminated information, new devices, and practice guidelines. This most often involves structuring activities in which the RERC creates opportunities to engage in interactive training or information exchange sessions with small groups of its constituency. All strategies have been summarized below, organized based on forum for facilitation. In summary, these strategies are designed to encourage the adoption and use of the practices, devices, information, or guidelines generated by the RERC or others concerned with improvements to wheeled mobility technology.
Planning forums: All planning sessions, including the initial tasks selection for this RERC proposal and their planned implementation, involve students, primary users, clinicians, researchers, and industry representatives, as may be appropriate. This greatly enhances the potential that early decisions will result in activities and eventual outcomes that will have relevance to needs of the involved constituents.
Advisory Board: the membership of the Advisory Board is comprised of a cross section of the RERCs constituency: primary users, a student, a manufacturer, or a researcher. This mix of experienced people help to ensure that the focus and progress of the RERC's endeavors is in keeping with the intent of the priorities and the practical needs of the target population.
Focus group sessions: Most development tasks include multiple focus group sessions in which target constituents are provided opportunities to provide active feedback to the development team, thereby influencing the direction of the development and relevance to their needs.
Continuing education forums: Training forums, such as the International Seating Symposium, hands-on demonstration projects, and instructional courses at RESNA, are all seen as opportunities to provide to clinicians, users, manufacturers and others practical information and guidance on the application of RERC produced or other relevant wheelchair technology.
Technology transfer: The RERC's technology process, as outlined previously in G-1, is to a large extent a utilization strategy. It begins with the confirmation that a real need exists and that there is at least one manufacturer prepared to make a substantial investment. Intensive exchange of information follows, leading to a prototype device or a concept ready for evaluation by users and clinicians, first locally and then, ideally, on a more extended basis.
Design guidelines: Several research and development tasks have as an outcome the generation and dissemination of design guidelines. When provided to designers of new products via WWW postings, news bulletins, informative sections of product performance standards, or one-on-one communications with a single manufacturer, they can lead to significant improvement in future generation products.
Recommended practice guidelines: Several research and development tasks have the generation and dissemination of recommended practice guidelines as an outcome goal. These guidelines, when made available to clinicians via continuing education forums, WWW postings, and clinical publications, can significantly influence the quality and provision of wheelchair technology services.
Student mentoring: Students are at the most formative stage of their careers in assistive technology, and are a primary recipient of RERC generated knowledge and concepts. Student projects and other forums are structured to ensure exposure to users needs, current technologies, current research and development efforts, and remaining unresolved problems.
Standards development: Manufacturing standards can be a most effective and direct means of utilization of an RERC's efforts. Once the new concepts has been accepted as part of a standard, all future manufactured products and the manner in which the presale information is disclosed will be carried out in accordance with the standard. It is particularly gratifying that FDA recently has accepted testing to ANSI/RESNA wheelchair standards as adequate proof for 501K product safety approval. The NIDRR-supported RERC on Wheeled Mobility has been a major contributor to this highly successful past effort. As indicated in task D-3, this RERC will provide the leadership and laboratory support for a similar outcome for wheelchair seating technologies, the new challenge for the immediate future.
Standards applications guidelines: In addition to manufacturers, standards often contain information and procedures directly applicable to primary, caregivers, and service providers. Preparation, dissemination and education of the above constituents on the interpretation and use of the standards is critical to their acceptance and adoption. The RERC is currently involved in the preparation of two such documents. Their availability will be made known through industry publications, WWW postings, list serves and clinical and consumer publications. They will also be distributed and presented in educational forums such as the annual RESNA instructional courses and the International Seating Symposia. The RERC will continue this activity in support of the application of the new seating standards, as they became available.
Request for Information Responses: Task leaders and staff receive many phone calls and email referrals by people seeking specific information about wheelchair technology, often related to the application of standards. Manufacturers bring prototype products to the RERC wanting independent validation of their compliance with the industry standards or clinical effectiveness. This provides an opportunity for one-on-one transfer of information that can lead to a direct modification to a product, a more informed product designer, or both.
WheelchairNet: In addition to WheelchairNet's potential to vastly expand the RERC's dissemination capacity, it is also a tool that can potentially impact on the adoption and use of new developments. Task R-6 will begin to answer questions about how to best use this evolving communication medium for dissemination of decision-support information. Our plans to use experienced wheelchair users and clinicians as community leaders to foster interactive discussions on user experiences, unresolved problems, and adoption and early experiences with new technologies and devices will be immediately useful to an expanding group of community residents. Once the community is established and is serving a useful purpose, it will self perpetuate, thereby automatically including larger numbers of people within the RERC's target constituency.
Utilization Resources
The University of Pittsburgh and the RST Department have extensive resources to support D&U efforts. Lecture and meeting rooms are available for focus group meetings and larger instructional programs. Pitt's Department of Continuing Education staff is contracted to provide conference support services. At any one time, approximately 30 students are registered in the graduate academic program, and many will ultimately serve as future educators. We have a full-time experienced Webmaster and a dedicated WWW server that will facilitate the launching and growth of WheelchairNet. Finally, the task leaders, the Co-Directors, and Advisory Board have an extensive network of RERC constituents, including primary users, who can serve as consultants and provide feedback on the effectiveness of our dissemination and utilization efforts.
Expected Outcomes
Dissemination and utilization (D&U) are vitally important activities of the RERC and, therefore, will command significant involvement by all members of the RERC team.
Technical Assistance
Technical assistance for the purposes of this proposal is defined as: "providing direct assistance of a technical nature to aid RERC target constituents in the solution of a problem related to wheelchair mobility."
All task leaders, especially those presenting workshops on wheelchair standards, are frequently contacted by manufacturers, clinicians, transporters, and periodically by primary users to answer questions about the status and meaning of various parts of the standards.
The RERC has had a history of supportive relationships with local consumer advocacy groups. For example, Dr. Hobson is on the Advisory Board of PIAT, Pennsylvania's Tech. Act project. The RERC has always had an administrator from the local Independent Living Center on its Advisory Board. This practice will be continued, as well as our cooperative activities with the local United Cerebral Palsy Affiliate. These linkages create increased opportunities to provide technical assistance directly to consumer groups.
Although untested, we visualize WheelchairNet as an effective and efficient vehicle to provide technical assistance to a much larger segment of the RERC's target constituency than otherwise possible. Finally, the RERC will continue to produce and disseminate technical reports that contain technical information at a level of detail normally not included in a journal publication or industry magazine article.
To request technical assistance please contact Dr. Douglas Hobson at: dhobson+@pitt.edu
Acknowledgement:
The primary support for the WMRC is provided by
The Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology (RST) of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
