BrainWaveBank usability for young adult patients [UHR/ARMS]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing the usability of the BrainWaveBank platform for young adults with an at-risk mental state
IRAS ID
255834
Contact name
Brian Murphy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
BrainWaveBank Ltd
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 2 days
Research summary
Despite the known significant health and financial benefits of early intervention, recognising schizophrenia in children and young people continues to be very difficult for primary healthcare professionals. The BrainWaveBank (BWB) platform is designed to assist with this effort by enabling the gathering of brainwave activity recordings (EEG) when used by non-experts outside of the clinic.
The BWB platform consists of an easy-to-use EEG headset, along with gamified cognitive tests which are motivating and engaging, resulting in high adherence in at-home trials. This means that the platform can be successfully deployed in home-use, educational, and/or other community-based environments without requiring expert oversight. For at-risk populations, the screening tests can be performed at home and data can be reviewed remotely, in real-time, by a clinician via web-based dashboards. By enabling remote, longitudinal monitoring of the at-risk population, significant resources can be conserved while also enabling earlier detection of those most at-risk for progression to schizophrenia.
To date, the platform has been trialled in a usability study with healthy older adult participants, which resulted in age-appropriate refinements to the design. This project aims to develop a new version of the platform which is geared towards acceptance and usability in a younger cohort who are clinically judged to be in an at-risk mental state - and likely to progress. We plan to run a set of focus groups with healthy young adults, clinicians and service users of the STEP program in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust. In addition, we will run a 2-week-long, at-home usability trial with healthy young adult participants. The primary aim of these sessions will be to gather qualitative feedback which can be used to guide a redesign of the platform and work towards a large-scale field trial in the future (not part of the current project).
REC name
HSC REC B
REC reference
18/NI/0219
Date of REC Opinion
7 Jan 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion