Titulo Estágio
TrackingALS - Tracking Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in everyday life
Local do Estágio
Rua Alfredo Allen 455/461, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
Enquadramento
Motivation:
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a neurodegenerative condition that affects mobility, speech, and respiratory ability. While rare, the condition is chronic and extremely challenging for patients as it strongly reduces the quality of life and life expectancy. Recent drug trials promise to impact patients’ lives, but there are currently no efficient ways to monitor the symptoms of the condition in ambulatory conditions.
The project HomeSenseALS is creating a mobile system for monitoring the symptoms of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Drawing on self-report functionalities and passive sensing, the system will provide a richer picture of patients’ conditions in ambulatory. While potentially useful for characterising patients’ conditions, the smartphone app may have negative impact on patients as it may remind them that their condition is progressing. This thesis will support the qualitative evaluation of the system with patients, carers, and family members.
Objetivo
Objectives:
The goal of this thesis is to perform a qualitative evaluation of a mobile app for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, developed in the HomeSenseALS project. The successful applicant will plan and conduct interviews and perform system and usage log analysis during the field trials of the HomeSenseALS project. The participants of the pilot will be the patients, their carers, or family members.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 1
Workplan (1st semester):
- Review literature on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis symptoms, care, self-care;
- Review literature on qualitative methods for technology assessment in everyday life;
- Review literature on conducting field trials in HCI.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 2
Workplan (2nd semester):
- Create interview script for understanding experiences of patients with the system
- Conduct interviews with patients
- Analyse interviews and system usage logs
- Document results as practices, issues, or implications for design
Condições
Profile:
- Background in multimedia design or a similar area;
- Knowledge about planning and conducting qualitative studies (at least introductory);
- Good social skills for interacting with participants;
- Interest in understanding the issues of people living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis;
- Willingness to perform interdisciplinary work;
- Proficiency in English.
Observações
MSc Thesis to be supervised by Prof. Paula Alexandra Silva (DEI).
References:
- APELA (2022) O que é a ELA? https://www.apela.pt/page/17/o-que-e-a-ela;
- Helleman et al. (2020) Telehealth as part of specialized ALS care: feasibility and user experiences with “ALS home-monitoring and coaching”;
- Helleman et al. (2020) The current use of telehealth in ALS care and the barriers to and facilitators of implementation: a systematic review.
Orientador
Francisco Maria Cruz Nunes
francisco.nunes@fraunhofer.pt 📩