Luc De Witte

• prof.dr.
• Professor (Full) at The Hague University of Applied Sciences

Background Despite the multitude of healthcare services available in India, health inequalities persist. People in low-resource settings are both disadvantaged and have the greatest need for healthcare. To address these disparities and achieve universal health coverage, healthcare services need to be tailored to the specific needs of this populatio...

In this chapter, eight (past-)presidents of the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE) reflect on their personal engagement with the technology and disability field. The result is a patchwork of personal contributions, reflecting aspects of the contemporary history of Assistive Technology in its broadest sense, re...

Background: This study investigates patients’ use of eHealth services, their awareness of the availability of these services, and their intention to use them in primary care. It also examines patient characteristics and factors that influence the use of these services. Methods: A cross-sectional design using questionnaires was conducted. Based on t...

Purpose In recent years, robots have more frequently been implemented in care for older adults (Na et al., 2023). Care robots can serve different purposes, for example providing social, physical, or medical assistance (Bouwhuis, 2016). Socially assistive robots (SARs) support in activities of daily living and/or providing social companionship (Abdi...

Improved cookstoves aimed at reducing exposure to indoor air pollution have had a lasting presence in development and health discussions. Through this article we contribute to current debates in the field by reflecting on our experiences during a cookstove participatory project in two ‘non-notified’ communities, or ‘slums,’ in Bangalore, India. We...

Purpose: Despite the high unmet need for effective AT provision, multiple service delivery models across different countries, and a shortage of personnel trained in this field, no widely useable and accepted Assistive Technology (AT) service provision guidelines currently exist. This review aims to provide an overview of the literature regarding A...

Background Music has been found to provide numerous health and wellbeing benefits for people living with dementia. It is also quite open in terms of the forms of engagement it affords, offering numerous different ways to listen, play and create. Although technology has the potential to reduce barriers that people with dementia face when attempting...

Background Music has been found to provide numerous health and wellbeing benefits for people living with dementia. It is also quite open in terms of the forms of engagement it affords, offering numerous different ways to listen, play and create. Although technology has the potential to reduce barriers that people with dementia face when attempting...

Working with a participatory design approach, this report details how we (the Music, Dementia, Technology team at The University of Sheffield) have incorporated viewpoints from people living with dementia and those who provide care for them into thinking about the design of musical activities and new musical technologies. This work is funded by a U...

This poster presents a brief research endeavour, recognized as an exploration. The findings are written in Dutch to suit the Dutch healthcare system context. The exploration delved into the potential use of Hyodol in the Netherlands, spanning a three-month duration. Hyodol is a care robot designed for older adults with dementia. The robot can opera...

Smartphone apps might provide an opportunity to support the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, a healthy diet designed to help lower blood pressure. This study evaluated DASH diet self-management apps based on their quality, likely effectiveness, and data privacy/security to identify the most suitable app(s). A systematic search a...

Alongside a growing use of creative arts within community and residential settings to support the health and wellbeing of older adults living with dementia, is an increasing availability of technology, although development for this context has up till now been limited. To examine how technology might be used to meet the leisure, health, and wellbei...

Implementation of the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (UN CRPD) requires countries to harmonise their legislative frameworks with it. This paper investigates the national legislative frameworks of four Asian countries to see the extent to which they provide support services in accordance with Article 19 of the U...

For older adults living with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, creative arts-based activities can offer many benefits from enjoyment as leisure/recreation to an avenue to maintain cognitive, social and emotional wellbeing. With growing interest and recognition that technology could have potential to assist in delivering these activities in mor...

Most people with dementia (PwD) are cared for by unpaid family carers, many of whom must balance caring with paid work. This regularly entails dealing with care-related emergencies (CRE). This study aims to explore the impact of carers’ autonomy at work regarding breaks, schedule, and place on their ability to manage CRE, and use technology to that...

Purpose: Globally, assistive technology (AT) is used by over 1 billion people, but the prevalence of needs and access to AT in specific countries or regions is largely unknown. This scoping review summarises the evidence available on the prevalence of needs, access and coverage of AT in the World Health Organisation European Region and the barrier...

Purpose: This paper critically reviews and reflects on the processes for providing Assistive Technology (AT) services to Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The aim is to investigate the AT service delivery systems in these countries and suggest improvements where weaknesses are identified. Materials and methods: We c...

BACKGROUND Uncontrolled hypertension is a public health issue, with increasing prevalence worldwide. The Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is one of the most effective dietary approaches for lowering blood pressure (BP). Dietary mobile applications (apps) have gained popularity and are being used to support DASH diet self-management...

Background: Uncontrolled hypertension is a public health issue, with increasing prevalence worldwide. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is one of the most effective dietary approaches for lowering blood pressure (BP). Dietary mobile apps have gained popularity and are being used to support DASH diet self-management, aiming to...

BACKGROUND: Rapid technological development has been opening new possibilities for children with disabilities. In particular, robots can enable and create new opportunities in therapy, rehabilitation, education, or leisure. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to share experiences, challenges and learned lessons by the authors, all of them with ex...

Limited access to assistive technology (AT) is a well-recognized global challenge. Emerging technologies have potential to develop new assistive products and bridge some of the gaps in access to AT. However, limited analyses exist on the potential of these technologies in the AT field. This paper describes a study that aimed to provide an overview...

Background Smartphone apps are increasingly being used to aid in hypertension self-management, and a large and ever-growing number of self-management apps have been commercially released. However, very few of these are potentially effective and secure, and researchers have yet to establish the suitability of specific hypertension apps to particular...

Background and aim: India has had a wheelchair-delivery system in place for several years but its impact on users is inadequate. Therefore, this research reviews the system to examine how the right to personal mobility can be served better. Method: this paper undertakes a narrative review of the existing government-aided wheelchair provision sys...

Combining work and care can be very challenging. If not adequately supported, carers’ employment, well‐being and relationships may be at risk. Technologies can be potential solutions. We carried out a scoping review to find out what is already known about technologies used by working carers. The search included academic and grey literature publishe...

Research findings suggest that robots can enhance interventions targeted at children with autism spectrum disorder. A pilot study was conducted at a special needs school to examine the effect of robot KASPAR on making contact with children with autism. Nine children between 8 and 12 years of age participated in this mixed methods study with ABAB de...

Exploration of the effects of social robots on the anxiety of children visiting hospital

BACKGROUND Smartphone apps are increasingly being used to aid in hypertension self-management, and a large and ever-growing number of self-management apps have been commercially released. However, very few of these are potentially effective and secure, and researchers have yet to establish the suitability of specific hypertension apps to particular...

Background For many children, visiting the hospital can lead to a state of increased anxiety. Social robots are being explored as a possible tool to reduce anxiety and distress in children attending a clinical or hospital environment. Social robots are designed to communicate and interact through movement, music and speech. Objective This systemat...

BACKGROUND Walking speed predicts important clinical outcomes in older adults and is one of the most significant indicators of frailty. OBJECTIVE To test whether it is feasible to measure walking speed frequently and unobtrusively in the home. METHODS A longitudinal feasibility study was conducted comprising the installation and monitoring of con...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse and critically reflect on access to Assistive Technology (AT) for persons with disabilities (PWD) in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. This analysis aims to guide the development of a contextualised generic AT service delivery model suitable for these countries, based on the best practices identified. M...

Some emerging technologies have potential to address older people’s care and support needs. However, there is still a gap in the knowledge on the potential uses of these technologies in some care domains. Therefore, a two-round Delphi survey was conducted to establish a consensus of opinion from a group of health and social technology experts (n =...

People living in urban slums or informal settlements are among the most vulnerable communities, highly susceptible to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and vulnerable to the consequences of the measures taken to control the spread of the virus. Fear and stigma related to infection, mistrust between officials and the population, the ofte...

Background: Higher than national rates of non-communicable diseases have been found in some urban slums of India. This has been attributed to potentially lower levels of education and decreased access to preventative care. We sought to assess the prevalence of NCDs in a Mumbai slum compared to national averages and understand the association with s...

Background In a changing ageing society wherein older adults are increasingly expected to take care of themselves instead of relying on health care services, online community care platforms can help older adults to meet these expectations. A considerable number of these online community care platforms have been introduced in several European countr...

Background and aim This study investigated the current state of wheelchair services in Bangalore Rural district, as provided by Bangalore Baptist Hospital, and identified areas for improvement. Method a cross-sectional survey was held among 50 wheelchair users. Data was collected on demographics, satisfaction, wheelchair skills and level of disabi...

Objectives To describe the initial dilemmas, mental stress, adaptive measures implemented and how the healthcare team collectively coped while providing healthcare services in a large slum in India, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Setting Community Health Division, Bangalore Baptist Hospital, Bangalore. Study design We used mixed methods research w...

BACKGROUND The use of smartphone apps to assist in the self-management of hypertension is becoming increasingly common. However, although an increasing number of apps are becoming available, very few of them have the potential to be both safe and effective. In a previous study, we identified 5 apps that are potentially effective and safe, and based...

Background The use of smartphone apps to assist in the self-management of hypertension is becoming increasingly common, but few commercially available apps have the potential to be effective along with adequate security and privacy measures in place. In a previous study, we identified 5 apps that are potentially effective and safe, and based on the...

Background The number of older people with unmet care and support needs is increasing substantially due to the challenges facing the formal and informal care systems. Emerging technological developments have the potential to address some of the care and support challenges of older people. However, limited work has been done to identify emerging tec...

This paper reports the responses of nursing home residents who live in a psychogeriatric ward to the abstract interactive art installation ‘Morgendauw’, which was specifically designed for this study. All stakeholders were involved in designing and implementing Morgendauw. The artwork seems able to evoke responses in both the residents and their ca...

Persons with disabilities in rural India do not have the opportunity to lead a self-determined life and be included in their community as required by the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. To investigate their experience of living everyday life and the amount of agency they are able to exercise, in-depth interviews were undertak...

BACKGROUND In a changing ageing society where older adults are increasingly expected to take care of themselves instead of relying on healthcare services, Online Community Care (OCC) platforms can help older adults to meet these expectations. A considerable number of these OCC platforms have been introduced in several European countries based on th...

This study aimed (1) to examine the contribution of robot ZORA in achieving therapeutic and educational goals in rehabilitation and special education for children with severe physical disabilities, and (2) to discover the roles professionals attribute to robot ZORA when it is used in robot-based play interventions in rehabilitation and special educ...

Purpose: This paper describes international actions to collaborate in the assistive technology (AT) arena and provides an update of programmes supporting AT globally. Methods: The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies the severe global uneven distribution of resources, expertise and extensive unmet need for AT, as well the optimistic substanti...

Following publication of the original article [1], we have been notified that acknowledgement should be added to the text of the articles. The Acknowledgement section should read as follows.

BACKGROUND The number of older people with unmet care and support needs is increasing substantially due to the challenges facing the formal and informal care systems. Emerging technological developments have the potential to address some of the care and support challenges of older people. However, limited work has been done to identify emerging tec...

The number of people who combine work and unpaid care is increasing rapidly as more people need care, public and private care systems are progressively under pressure and more people are required to work for longer. Without adequate support, these working carers may experience detrimental effects on their well‐being. To adequately support working c...

Background Due to demographic transitions and budget restraints, it is now necessary to search for comprehensive new strategies, in order to constitute a sustainable healthcare system. Recently, various online care platforms for community-dwelling older adults were introduced in several European countries. These platforms have aimed at solidifying...

Assistive technology supports maintenance or improvement of an individual’s functioning and independence, though for people in need the access to assistive products is not always guaranteed. This paper presents a generic quality framework for assistive technology service delivery that can be used independent of the setting, context, legislative fra...

Background: In the last decade or so, increased computer processing and storage capabilities, along with the availability of big data sets, have stimulated the development of more elaborate inductive machine learning algorithms and architectures. These have delivered impressive results in tasks such as natural language processing and image recognit...

Background: The number of older people with unmet care and support needs is increasing substantially due to the challenges facing the formal and informal care system in the United Kingdom. Addressing these unmet needs is becoming one of the urgent public health priorities. In order to develop effective solutions to address some of these needs, it...

Background: Individuals living with long-term physical health conditions frequently experience co-occurring mental health problems. This comorbidity has a significant impact on an individual’s levels of emotional distress, health outcomes, and associated health care utilization. As health care services struggle to meet demand and care increasingly...

Background: Hypertension is a widespread chronic disease, and its effective treatment requires self-management by patients. Health-related apps provide an effective way of supporting hypertension self-management. However, the increasing range and variety of hypertension apps available on the market, owing to the global growth in apps, creates the n...

Background Slums are home to nearly one billion people in the world and are expanding at an exponential rate. Devarjeevanahalli is a large notified slum in Bangalore, South India which is characterised by poverty, overcrowding, hazardous living environment and social complexities. The poor living conditions not only affect the health of the people...

BACKGROUND:Talking Mats™ is a framework developed to support communication with communication vulnerable people. OBJECTIVE: The objective was twofold: to provide an overview of the objectives, target groups and settings for which Talking Mats has been used (Part 1), and an overview of empirical scientific knowledge on the use of Talking Mats (Part...

The aim of this research was to study roles, strengths and challenges of robot-mediated interventions using robot KASPAR for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twelve focus group sessions were organized in which 70 ASD care and/or education professionals participated. Six roles for KASPAR were identified: provoker, reinforcer, trainer, m...

BACKGROUND Individuals living with long-term physical health conditions frequently experience co-occurring mental health problems. This comorbidity has a significant impact on individual’s levels of emotional distress, health outcomes and associated healthcare utilization. As healthcare services struggle to meet demand and care increasingly moves t...

This article summarizes the research which has been done in the context of a PhD thesis in the field of robots for children with severe physical disabilities. Because children with physical disabilities are often limited in their play possibilities, technology might offer new possibilities. In intensive collaboration with rehabilitation and special...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe whether and how groups of nursing home residents respond to the interactive device “the CRDL”. The CRDL can translate touches between people into sounds. It recognises the type of touch and adjusts the produced sound accordingly. Design/methodology/approach This was as an observational explorative s...

Purpose: This is a position paper describing the elements of an international framework for assistive technology provision that could guide the development of policies, systems and service delivery procedures across the world. It describes general requirements, quality criteria and possible approaches that may help to enhance the accessibility of a...

Background: Hypertension is a chronic disease that is considered to be a public health problem and requires efforts by patients to manage themselves. The global growth in the use of mobile phones and tablets has been accompanied by the increased use of health apps. Many of these apps support the self-management of hypertension and, therefore, they...

Background: Recent transitions in long-term care in the Netherlands have major consequences for community-dwelling older adults. A new paradigm expects them to manage and arrange their own care and support as much as possible. Technology can support this shift. A study has been conducted to explore the needs of community-dwelling frail older adult...

Background: Electronic health (eHealth) solutions are considered to relieve current and future pressure on the sustainability of primary health care systems. However, evidence of the effectiveness of eHealth in daily practice is missing. Furthermore, eHealth solutions are often not implemented structurally after a pilot phase, even if successful d...

Background: Urban slums are characterised by unique challenging living conditions, which increase their inhabitants' vulnerability to specific health conditions. The identification and prioritization of the key health issues occurring in these settings is essential for the development of programmes that aim to enhance the health of local slum comm...

This study responds to the need for participatory, context-oriented approaches to address the growing health threat of indoor air pollution faced by marginalised communities of urban India. It explored the application of the co-designing model employed by Project Exhale in two non-notified slums in Bangalore, by analysing processes and tools of mul...

Background: While any type of field-based research is challenging, building action-oriented, participatory research in resource-constrained settings can be even more so. Objective: In this article, we aim to examine and provide insights into some of the practical challenges that were faced during the course of a participatory project based in tw...

Objectives It is unclear why the use of email consultation is not more widespread in Dutch general practice, particularly because, since 2006, its costs can be reimbursed. To encourage further implementation, it is needed to understand the current use of email consultations. This study aims to understand the use of email consultation by different p...

Mensen met dementie krijgen in de loop van het ziekteproces in toenemende mate problemen op verschillende terreinen, zoals bij het boodschappen doen, koken, de zelfverzorging en de oriëntatie in tijd en ruimte. Om veilig en op een zo prettig mogelijke manier thuis te kunnen blijven wonen zijn ondersteuning en zorg nodig. Die kunnen worden geboden d...

This multi-perspective study focuses on how a service robot for the elderly should behave when interacting with potential users. An existing service robot and a scenario were used as a concrete case which was discussed and analyzed during focus group sessions with older adults (n = 38), informal caregivers (n = 24) and professional caregivers (n =...

Dementia is a progressive brain disease with a decline in functioning over time. CRDL (pronounced as Cradle) is an interactive instrument, developed to stimulate communication between users through sound and touch. It recognises the intention of the touch (tickle, holding, grabbing, fondling, kneading, and tapping) and will adjust the sound accordi...

The aim of this study was to gain insight into how robots can be practically implemented into current education and therapy interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This qualitative study included focus groups and co-creation sessions. 73 Participants (professionals and adults with ASD) took part in 13 focus groups to elicit...

The aim of the present study was to explore the potential of a ZORA-robot based intervention in rehabilitation and special education for children with (severe) physical disabilities from the professionals perspective. The qualitative results of this study will be presented. Professionals indicated meaningful application possibilities for ZORA. Over...

BACKGROUND: Play is essential for children's development. Children with severe physical disabilities often experience problems engaging in play. In rehabilitation and special education for children with physical disabilities play-like activities and play for play's sake are important. OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed at examining the possibilitie...

BACKGROUND: The service delivery process of dynamic arm support (DAS) is complex. Obtaining an optimal match between user and DAS depends on a variety of interrelated factors, different professionals are involved, and the market of available solutions is evolving. OBJECTIVE: To determine how the service delivery process of DAS could be optimized. M...

Robots are increasingly considered as a promising tool in therapeutic and educational interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). International literature indicates that robots can potentially be applied to a wide range of objectives. The aim of this article is to present an overview of robots that are currently used in therapy...

Background Large-scale cohort studies are needed to confirm the relation between dementia and its possible risk factors. The inclusion of people with dementia in research is a challenge, however, children of people with dementia are at risk and are highly motivated to participate in dementia research. For technologies to support home-based data col...

The aim of this study was to explore the potential of ZORA robot-based interventions in rehabilitation and special education for children with severe physical disabilities. A two-centre explorative pilot study was carried out over a 2.5-month period involving children with severe physical disabilities with a developmental age ranging from 2 to 8 ye...

Purpose: The potential of service robots for seniors is given increasing attention as the ageing population in Western countries will continue to grow as well as the demand for home care. In order to capture the experience of living with a robot at home, a multi-perspective evaluation was conducted. Methods: Older adults (n = 10) were invited to ex...

BACKGROUND: Understanding how dynamic arm supports affect the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) in daily life situations is essential for improved prescription. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the newly developed MMAAS is a useful tool to assess the RoM at home. Secondly, to investigate differences in RoM and ADL performance with...

The main aim of this systematic review was to describe responses of participants to physical, open-ended interactive digital artworks. Although human-to-artwork and human-to-human responses were found in the 22 identified artworks, more human-to-artwork responses were reported. Both types of responses were further categorised into physical, verbal,...

New as well as existing technologies can help the person with dementia and family carers to reduce social isolation and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), and therefore help to make the disease more manageable. This symposium, presented by leaders in the field of technology and social robots aims to assist participants to rec...

Older people prefer to stay independent and active in their own environment. Information and communication technology can support them in accomplishing these goals. This is challenging though, as many are not familiar with technology. We introduced a community ICT platform in Heerlen, a city with a highly ageing population, in close collaboration w...

Although the majority of people with dementia wish to age in place, they are particularly susceptible to nursing home admission. Nurses can play an important role in detecting practical problems people with dementia and their informal caregivers are facing and in advising them on various ways to manage these problems at home. Six focus group interv...

Background Biomass fuel is used as a primary cooking source by more than half of the world’s population, contributing to a high burden of disease. Although cleaner fuels are available, some households continue using solid fuels because of financial constraints and absence of infrastructure, especially in non-notified slums. The present study docume...

This paper describes a co-design method for creating art installations that potentially generate meaningful experiences for residents of nursing homes, especially elderly suffering from dementia. The co-design method originated from the development of VENSTER and Morgendauw, two interactive art installations specifically created for this target pop...

Background There is a growing emphasis on self-monitoring applications that allow patients to measure their own physical health parameters. A prerequisite for achieving positive effects is patients’ willingness to self-monitor. The controllability of disease types, patients’ perceived self-efficacy and health problems could play an essential role i...

The goal of this study was (1) to determine whether and how nursing home residents with dementia respond to the interactive art installation in general and (2) to identify whether responses change when the content type and, therefore, the nature of the interaction with the artwork changes. The interactive art installation 'VENSTER' evokes responses...

Introduction Co-creative methods, having an iterative character and including different perspectives, allow for the development of complex nursing interventions. Information about the development process is essential in providing justification for the ultimate intervention and crucial in interpreting the outcomes of subsequent evaluations. This pap...