Digital Interventions in Neuro-Rehabilitation (DINR)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Digital Interventions in Neuro-Rehabilitation: Two digital neuro interventions (DNIs)for word retrieval. The development and testing of two web-based therapy applications for people with naming difficulties caused by Stroke (iTALKbetter) or Mild-Moderate Dementia (Gotcha!).
IRAS ID
227211
Contact name
Alexander P Leff
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2017/08/52 health research, UCL Data Protection Registration reference
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
The main aim is to develop and test clinical efficacy of two novel, web-based, rehabilitation applications funded by NIHR. iTALKbetter will provide an app-based therapy for people with naming difficulties caused by stroke (naming app for a wide variety of common words and phrases), while Gotcha! will be for patients with dementia (who have difficulty naming people they know well). These two digital neuro interventions (DNIs) will provide the opportunity for the necessary increased rehabilitation that help people recover lost function. This will alleviate NHS therapist (SALT) time and put patients in control of when and where the carry out practice-based language therapy.
While both apps will be aimed at different patient populations, the underlying software and development pipelines are almost identical, hence our combining them here for the purposes of ethical review.
Each app will go through three separate phases, each of which will require specific patient information sheets and formal consent: Phase 1 is development of the app (with patients as co-creators); the second phase is a standard, small-scale phase II clinical trial with randomized allocation of subjects; phase 3 is ‘roll-out’ where the app is made publicly available. We will continue to ask scientific questions about the real-world functioning of the app in this phase.
This application seeks ethical approval for phase 1 only.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1846
Date of REC Opinion
10 Nov 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion