PEDI-PRO

Client: Dr. Jessica Kramer, Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitative Sciences at Boston University

Patient self-evaluation of their progress during occupational or rehabilitation therapies is an important part of determining the value and effectiveness of those therapies. Dr. Jessica Kramer of Boston University has designed several such assessments, including PEDI-PRO, the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory – Patient Reported Outcome, a measurement software designed specifically to meet the accessibility needs of youth with developmental disabilities.

With the research on her assessment well underway, Dr. Kramer wanted to address the challenges of how new assessments become adopted into therapy practice.  It’s well documented that there are several barriers to the adoption of new assessments, including the time needed to administer and interpret, availability of training, and regulations governing the secure collection of client data. To address the gap between research and practice, Dr. Kramer partnered with TREAT to gain a deeper understanding of how market demands could impact future adoption of PEDI-PRO.

Dr. Kramer’s team completed a customer discovery process for the PEDI-PRO.  With guidance and funding from TREAT, they first conducted interviews with clinicians and rehabilitation managers working in schools, hospital systems, and private clinics. They then conducted focus groups at rehabilitation conferences with clinicians and researchers. Using the results of the interviews and focus groups, they developed a survey of clinicians to learn about the features that were crucial to incorporate into the PEDI-PRO to support adoption. From what they learned about their different market segments (e.g., schools vs. hospital systems) they determined which market is most likely to be the first adopter of PEDI-PRO software.

By focusing their efforts to meet the needs of this target market, for example, what software platform to use and the types of training materials to develop, they streamlined the path to adoption, resulting in more youth with developmental disabilities having an opportunity to be active participants in planning their rehabilitation services and evaluating the outcomes of those services.

“Although we had made progress developing and evaluating the PEDI-PRO, the TREAT pilot grant funding provided us with the time and resources to complete an in-depth customer discovery process and market assessment. The information we gained complimented what we were learning in our research, and provided a deeper understanding of how to support adoption into practice.”

Visit Dr. Kramer’s website to learn more about the PEDI PRO and her other work: http://www.bu.edu/sargent/profile/jessica-kramer/.