What is INDIGO?
What is INDIGO?
INDIGO is a program designed for retraining and tracking the progress of acquired brain injury patients needing cognitive rehabilitation. We have taken ten exercises which were previously developed by therapists and reworked them to create an environment that is simple and enjoyable for patients to use.
We used a game board metaphor to present the exercises, as this is a commonly understood format. A good interface design is extremely important for these patients. Since the software is part of a patient's therapy, they have no choice but to use it. As the goal is to assess and retrain cognitive functions which worked normally before the brain injury, the patients are prone to suffer from high frustration levels and poor concentration, so a software program that is simple to use is critical. Thus we concentrated on excellent principles of HCI and enhanced them.
An objective was to spare the cognitive functions of the patients as much as possible by designing an easy system. As the therapists are prescribing the program and are responsible for setting it up, working along at all times and monitoring the patient's progress, they also have to feel comfortable using the software.
How is it used?
The software serves two distinct purposes: evaluation and rehabilitation. The therapist can use the record keeping abilities of the software to evaluate a patient for a single session or track the patient's progress over time. When used as a cognitive retraining tool, the patient normally uses the software under the supervision of a therapist about an hour at a time, several times per week.
All 10 exercises use seamlessly either the mouse or keyboard (or both) to enter data, therefore a unique program can be set up according to the patient's needs and capabilities.
Where has it been used so far?
The program has been successfully used at the Traumatic Brain Injury Program at the Gorge Road Hospital in Victoria, B.C., Canada for a few years. The program has been accepted with enthusiasm by both the therapists and patients. The patients seem to enjoy using the program and are able to navigate through it easily.
There were no alternative programs available so we felt compelled to develop a good product that could be used by other rehabilitation institutions and also by patients working on their own. We would like to offer the INDIGO program to other medical institutions in the hope of helping more people .
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