We invite you to connect with us at our exhibition booth and participate in two key sessions.
Time and Date 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM Tue, 17 Jun
ATscale’s vision is to ensure every person can access and afford the assistive technology (AT) they need, enabling a lifetime of potential. ATscale’s mission is to catalyze action, amplify existing work, and coordinate and mobilize global stakeholders with unified strategies to increase availability of and access to AT. This symposium will reflect on lessons learned by ATscale in investing in catalyzing change. Opportunities to collaborate on current projects will be detailed and insights shared to help others seeking to initiate change and promote evolution in the prosthetics, orthotics, wheelchair and AT spaces.
This includes a future implementation research project, to explore the barriers and opportunities for translating prosthetic related research and development into implementable solutions for affordable and high-quality lower limb prostheses in low- and middle-income countries. This project will examine novel fitting technologies, components and the service delivery system through an implementation research lens.
A second project to develop guidance on local wheelchair production, repair and reuse models along with the integration of wheelchair services into the health system will follow. There will also be an overview of ATscale's work on humanitarian preparedness, including a recent large-scale logistics initiative within the UN humanitarian system along with logistics and supply chain management reflections. An update on the LEAD and COMPASS pilot will follow, including the development of a custom app for data collection and opportunities for collaboration as possible pilot sites. Finally, an update of national system investments and opportunities for AT sector transformation will be presented.
Statement of the objective / learning objectives
To share the scope of ATscale’s work portfolio, possibilities for collaboration and key learnings in creating systems change to improve access for people in need of lower limb prosthetics, orthoses, wheelchairs and other assistive technology.
2. Time and Date 4:15 PM - 5:30 PM, Monday, 16 Jun
The importance of understanding cultural and social context in low resource setting P&O research
P&O services enable individual and state benefits, by improving a person’s independence, reducing care responsibilities and enabling return to work or education, delivering 9:1 return-on-investment (ATscale). However, collaborative innovation is required to maximise effective funding use and deliver sustainable rehabilitation, especially for vulnerable people in LRS.
The Appropriate Technologies concept is often interpreted as functional robustness and environmental, material sustainability; cultural appropriateness and sustainable implementation are prioritised less. Social and cultural factors present very different challenges between nations and communities, so cultural competence and a detailed understanding of context are crucial both to appropriate conduct of research and to accurately interpreting the collected data.
We will describe example studies conducted in Cambodia with the Exceed Research Network, which demonstrate the importance of contextual awareness to three very different research methodologies. We will reflect on challenges in:
• Qualitative research to understand P&O service user needs and experiences:
1. assessing users’ needs to co-develop research aims
2. utilising a co-researcher ethos
• P&O patients’ mental health: research and intervention:
1. Addressing broader psychosocial health needs of P&O users
2. Tackling the qualified mental health professionals shortage by training P&O clinicians to perform mental health screening and referral, and facilitate peer support groups
3. Translating, adapting and validating self-report instruments
and
• Learning from routinely-collected P&O service provision data:
1. responsibly accessing data and extracting insights from clinic management systems
2. developing research questions that provide value to service providers and how ERN enabled interdisciplinary collaboration to address them
Statement of the objective / learning objectives
This session will provide examples of challenges of conducting meaningful research in a low-resourced setting, and insights into good practice and practical approaches to identify and navigate around them.