The HealthTalk Connect App: A co-designed communication support tool for people with communication disabilities

Abstract

Background: Effective communication in hospital is vital for quality care and especially challenging for people with a communication disability. The Aphasia App is a novel, digital environmental intervention that was designed to support communication between people with aphasia, one type of communication disability, and their healthcare workers in hospital. Preliminary results from ethnographic observations and interviews regarding use of the Aphasia App revealed that a range of factors potentially hinder its use in clinical interactions, suggesting a need for redesign.   Aims: This presentation summarises our work towards the design, development and testing of the HealthTalk Connect App; a collaborative redesign of the Aphasia App to improve implementation in healthcare interactions.   Methods: The HealthTalk Connect App was co-designed with multi-disciplinary healthcare workers from Epworth hospital and their consumers with lived experience of communication disability. An exploratory implementation trial of the App is investigating healthcare workers' perceptions of the App's utility. We will analyse data from approximately 15 semi-structured interviews with multidisciplinary healthcare workers using reflexive thematic analysis.   Results: Feedback from healthcare workers during interviews revealed that they were enthusiastic about the App but felt unable to use it with patients with severe communication disabilities. Healthcare workers also wanted ongoing training and practical demonstrations to facilitate App use.   Discussion: Healthcare worker feedback led to procedural changes to support App implementation in a second phase of testing. Results from the next phase of testing will reveal if the HealthTalk Connect App is useful to support communication between people with communication disabilities and their healthcare workers in hospital.