Development and evaluation of a 3D printing service for occupational therapists in rehabilitation

This project aims to develop and evaluate a 3D printing service and accompanying toolbox for occupational therapists working in rehabilitation centres to co-create with their clients assistive aids to support activities of daily living. Three rehabilitation centres (with 4 sites) participate in the study with a variety of clients, such as elderly people and adults with brain injuries, spinal cord injury, but also children with cerebral palsy who experience disabilities in activities of daily living (ADL). At each rehabilitation centre a learning community is established consisting of at least 2 occupational therapists, client(representatives), manager, rehabilitation doctor, technicians, a researcher and/or students of Zuyd University.
In the learner community action research is conducted during five iterations for a period of 14-months, from the composition of the learning community to evaluation of the entire process and developed service/toolbox. In each iteration the 3D printing service and accompanying tool box is developed, evaluated and adapted/developed further. In total, each of the sites (n=4) will include 5 clients during each iteration (n=20) and run through the 3D printing process to create a tailormade 3D printing solution for the clients' problem. In total, after 5 iterations 100 assistive aids designed and produced by 3D printing will be created and experiences about the process, service and toolbox will be collected. Primary outcomes of the study are satisfaction and experiences of clients, occupational therapists and other people involved with the developed 3D printing service and toolbox. If 3D printing proves to be a succesfull service for occupational therapists in rehabilitation, implementation of the service will be examined further.

3D printed tailormade assistive aids may better fulfill the requirements and needs of clients with disabilities to support them in performing their activities of daily living than the currently available aids or handmade aids provided by occupational therapists.

Satisfaction of clients with the developed assistive aids is assessed for each client after 1 month of using the aid with the D-Quest questionnaire. Satisfaction of the participating occupational therapists is measured after each iteration the 3D printing process is ran through, using individual interviews with each of the occupational therapists (n=8), other participants such as technicians, 3D experts (n=8) and als 8 clients who participated in the iteration. After 9, 13 and 18 months a focus group interview will be conducted to exchange excperiences between the occupational therapists (n=8) of the three contexts (rehabilitation centres). During each iteration the occupational therapists will keep diaries in which they describe the complete process for each partipating client. Information on the request for help, problems experienced in daily living, clients needs, design of the 3D printing solution, materials used, time invested will be registered.

3D printing