Clinicians Report High Usability, Perceived Usefulness and Value of a Novel Wheelchair Wheel Rolling Resistance Clinical Decision Support System

Research Objectives: To assess the usability, usefulness, value, primary uses, and recommended improvements of the RightWheel clinical decision support system (CDSS) designed to provide manual wheelchair providers with objective information about how wheelchair configuration affects rolling resistance. We hypothesize the CDSS will have acceptable usability and usefulness, and that participants will value the CDSS.

Design: Mixed methods pre-post pilot study. The CDSS was used in wheelchair seating clinics for 8 weeks as a part of the manual wheelchair selection process. Quantitative assessments were administered at weeks 0, 4 and 8. Qualitative feedback was gathered at week 8.

Setting: Outpatient wheelchair seating clinics

Participants: Convenience sample of N=7 Assistive Technology Professional (ATP) certified physical or occupational therapists who evaluate >10 manual wheelchair clients per year.

Interventions: RightWheel CDSS was used by participants for 8 weeks

Main Outcome Measures: Usability: System usability scale (SUS>68) and modified questionnaire for user interface satisfaction (QUIS>6); Usefulness: Technology acceptance questionnaire (TAQ>4); and value, primary uses, and recommended improvements by qualitative interview.

Results: Clinicians found RightWheel easy to use, with acceptable usability and perceived usefulness, which became easier to use over eight weeks (SUS 83.9 to 87.5, p=.572; QUIS 7.3 to 8.2, p<.001; TAQ 4.1 to 4.6, p=.008). Clinician’s primary uses include educating clients, training clinicians, and understanding the impact of rolling resistance. Clients who benefited from the CDSS reduced rolling resistance 34.5% SD(13). All clinicians would recommend RightWheel to other clinicians, and further improvements were identified.

Conclusions: Clinicians found the CDSS easy to use with high perceived usefulness, providing clients a way to visualize information and make informed decisions, with many clients potentially benefiting from its use.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts of interest to disclose