A new project has commenced which will give Northern Irish hospitals patients the ability to test out our SRAVI lipreading app.
In collaboration with QUB, this PhD project will last for 18 months, led by investigator Professor Bronagh Blackwood and Staff Nurse Carla McClintock. It will entail SRAVI being brought into two Belfast sites, City Hospital and Royal Victoria Hospital, and a third site at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry/Londonderry.
SRAVI has the potential to bring a voice to the voiceless. It can help people who are rendered speechless due to the insertion of a tracheostomy. The aim of the study is to establish the feasibility and acceptability of SRAVI, specifically for adult critical care patients with a tracheostomy. These patients can mouth words, but are unable to communicate using verbal speech.
SRAVI will be offered to as many as 55 patients as a communications aid during their stay in critical care units.
The study will involve questionnaires to measure the accuracy of SRAVI and to evaluate patients’ capability in using SRAVI. These will be taken with each patient multiple times, at various stages throughout their stay. Qualitative interviews will also be undertaken with patients’, their significant others and the critical care healthcare team to explore their experiences of SRAVI.
Liopa’s COO, Richard McConnell, said: “The study aims to determine the effectiveness, or accuracy of the app – while also getting a standard measure across patients and staff as to the usability of the app. This will hopefully show us how we can continue to improve SRAVI for the diversity of patient needs.”
It’s hopeful that a secondary outcome of the study will be the feasibility to collect clinical data measures, including: Duration of critical care length of stay; Duration of hospital length of stay; Delirium; Health Related Quality of Life; Anxiety and depression; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; and Cognitive status.
Richard concluded: “A lot of our recent work with SRAVI has been in England and the US, so it will be great to see the lipreading app in use by more local hospital patients here in NI. Everyone on the team at Liopa and Queen’s University are looking forward to seeing the outcome of this study.”