New app being developed for stroke patients
Acadia researcher gets $148,000 boost for treatment project
A researcher at Acadia University is developing an app that could drastically improve the lives of stroke survivors living with spatial neglect.
Health Minister Leo Glavine visited the Wolfville-based university Friday to announce that Dr. Anne Sophie Champod will be awarded a $148,000 grant in support of a post-stroke recovery and rehabilitation project involving the development of an iPad – or mobile – app that will allow stroke patients to advance their rehabilitation from the comforts of their own home.
“When we think of health care we usually think of frontline doctors, nurses and others in our system, but research is just as important. It helps us to improve the care we can offer in years and generations to come,” said Glavine, addressing a small crowd in the Horton Hall building that hosts Champod’s research lab.
Champod explained that the app is designed to assist people living with spatial neglect, a condition that makes it difficult for the stroke patients to direct attention to the left side of their environment.
“I’ve been working on the development of a treatment program that we hope will become a home-based, game-like, userfriendly treatment program for
a neurological condition which is quite common after a stroke,” said Champod.
The grant money, awarded through the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, made it possible for Champod to establish a collaborative research team, oversee the development of the required app and prism goggles that shift the user’s field of vision, and purchase equipment.
“People will be more likely to use it if it is fun to use,” said Champod, adding that the goal is to establish an effective, clinically tested treatment program for people of all ages that can be used at home for ten minutes each day.
Reflecting on observations she first made as a clinical intern, Champod said the current treatment options for spatial
neglect that require patients with mobility issues to travel to a hospital setting can be quite tedious for the patient and resource intensive for the health care system.
The developing app could require less direct clinical supervision while granting the patient more flexibility, Champod said.
Champod’s project is one of 95 that received a portion of the $2.9 million in grant money the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation has doled out since 2016.
“Whenever we have an opportunity to celebrate excellence we should… excellence in Nova Scotia is not an address, or location. We have excellence right across the province,” said research foundation CEO Krista Connell.