SWISSNEUROREHAB: first Patient Public Involvement (PPI) Day on March 31st 2025

Integrating patient perspective into SwissNeuroRehab.

The SwissNeurorehab (SNR) project aims at improving the autonomy of people undergoing neurorehabilitation and to facilitate their return to their social and professional life, at their best conditions. To do that, SNR will develop and assess the efficacy and efficiency of a new model of care for neurorehabilitation of acquired brain injury (ABI) and spinal cord injury (SCI) that improves the continuum of care and boost therapy delivery via neurotechnologies and Digital Therapeutics (DTx). To support patient involvement and by then increase the value of the future new model of care from the point of view of patients and their relatives, SwissNeuroRehab has created a transversal group called Patient Public Involvement (PPI) Group to coordinate and support initiatives and actions of the 5 SPs.

The PPI group has launched, with the support of Plateforme REHA and the participation of the association Fragile Suisse, 2 public events in order to explore 1) patients’ needs and comfort with digital and robotic technologies and 2) patients’ experiences of the actual model of care. The first Patient Public Involvement Group Day was held on March 31st at Lavigny Hospital.

A twin event will be organized in the German-speaking part of Switzerland in Autumn 2025. This first event gathered about 30 patients and their relatives that were welcomed at the Lavigny Hospital by the Director Nathalie Kreienbuhl. Afterwards, Prof. Andrea Serino introduced the scope and status of SwissNeuroRehab and Prof. Francesca Bosisio presented the PPI Group’s objectives and goals.

After these presentations, the patients were invited to take part in two workshops, one led by Prof. Roger
Gassert, Prof. Olivier Baly and Paolo Martinelli aimed at gathering patients’ views about the DTx
technology and the other led by Prof. Francesca Bosisio and Gaé Colussi aimed at defining patients’
needs, perception and perspective with respect to their rehabilitation clinical pathway. The workshops
were rich with exchanges and brought very interesting insights that will be used in the SwissNeuroRehab
research.

During the day, patients had also the opportunity to see and try some key technologies available within
the SwissNeuroRehab portfolio of therapies.
This first day emphasized the many resources patients, and their relatives develop to cope with
neurological diseases. It also highlighted patients’ motivation to contribute to the improvement of
neurorehabilitation and the value of having active and meaningful of partnering with patients and their
relatives to improve healthcare in general and neurorehabilitation in particular.
It was also the opportunity for the SwissNeuroRehab team to thank the participating patients for their
availability and precious collaboration by enjoying together a nice and convivial meal.
A day to remember and an important achievement for the SwissNeuroRehab project!