NCT07460778

Development of Serious Games for Rehabilitation: a Delphi Study

Development of Serious Games for Rehabilitation, a Delphi Study

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 30 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Vrije Universiteit Brussel · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This clinical study has been organised to identify the needs and recommendations of experts in the field of rehabilitation technology and gamification on the development of serious games for rehabilitation. Based on the information gathered we aim to construct a blueprint for the development of serious games for rehabilitation that maximizes clinical outcomes and the effective implementation in rehabilitation.

Detailed description

This study will consist of different phases: Phase 1: The first phase consists of an online survey aimed at identifying important tools and methods for each stage of development, as well as across all stages of development. Furthermore, the survey will try to identify key principles that should be taken into account across the entire developmental process of serious games for rehabilitation. Phase 2: The second phase consists of online focus groups that will be organized to discuss the results of the online survey and add missing data if needed. These discussions will be held using Microsoft Teams. During these discussions a general model will be discussed en a revision of the results from the previous phase will be done. The results from this discussion will be used to structure the next phase. Phase 3: The third and final phase consists of consecutive online surveys in which you will be asked to rank the different items that were mentioned in the previous phase. These results will be collected and analyzed. After which you will get the chance to revise your answer based on all the results. This will be repeated until consensus is reached.

Conditions

• Expert Opinion on the Development of Serious Games for Rehabilitation

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Online survey	The first phase will consist of an online survey questionnaire aimed at identifying key development methods and tools for each stage of development. The survey will be structured using the Technology Readiness Level model and, by using open questions, experts will be asked to give their input on this model and the important items for each stage of development. Furthermore, the experts will be asked to identify the key principles that they find detrimental to the development of serious games for rehabilitation across all stages of development. Building on the results of this survey, focus group discussions will be organized.
OTHER	Focus group discussions	The second phase of the modified Delphi study will consist of online focus group discussions (using Microsoft Teams) with 6 to 12 experts per session. First, a summary will be given of the results from the survey phase. Following this, the experts will be asked to revise and add onto these results for each stage of development. Additionally the experts will be asked to revise the key principles that span across all stages of development and add missing key principles. Lastly they will be asked to identify already existing methodologies or frameworks that incorporate some (or all) of the mentioned tools or methods.
OTHER	Ranking results	In the next phase, experts will be asked to rank the different items mentioned during the focus group discussions on a five-point Likert scale through an online survey using Microsoft Forms. For each stage of development, the relevant items will be presented, and the experts will have to rank these items based on their importance (very important to not important at all) for the development of serious games for rehabilitation. The results from this phase will be anonymized and sent to the experts as feedback. Afterwards the experts will have the chance to revise their answers based on this feedback.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-03-01
• Primary completion: 2026-08-01
• Completion: 2026-09-01
• First posted: 2026-03-10
• Last updated: 2026-03-10

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Belgium