Design considerations for semi-automated tracking: self-care plans in spinal cord injury

Abstract

Self-care in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is highly complex and individualized. Patients struggle to adapt to life with SCI, especially when they go home after rehabilitation. We conducted a field study to understand how self-care plans work for patients in their lived experience and what requirements there might be for an augmentative system. We found that patients develop their own self-care plans over time, and that routinization plays a key role in SCI self-care. Importantly, self-care activities exist in different states of routinization that have implications for the technological support that should be provided. Our findings suggest that self-care can be supported by different types of semi-automated tracking that account for the different routinization of activities, the collaborative nature of care, and the life-long, dynamic nature of this condition. The findings from our study also extend recent guidelines for semi-automated tracking in health.