The iReadMore app – created to support people with aphasia or acquired reading impairments due to stroke, brain injury or dementia – is continuing to grow, driven by the positive experiences of users worldwide whose reading abilities have recovered significantly as a result of its use.
iReadMore is a self-led rehabilitation app which focuses on training single word reading, enabling people with acquired reading impairments – alexia or acquired dyslexia – to regain lost ability through practice.
The app, which engages users through its global travel theme, also gives feedback, which enables them to track their progress.
In its first week after launching earlier this year, iReadMore was downloaded in every continent in the world other than Antarctica, and has gone on to be particularly popular in the UK, United States, India and Australia, enabling people to begin or continue therapies despite the COVID-19 restrictions and lack of in-person access to support.
The app demonstrated the role it could play through clinical trials, which showed an average 8.7 per cent improvement in reading accuracy on trained words for people with aphasia. This was maintained at a three-month follow-up.
And its impact is now being seen in real world environments, with users attesting its benefits as a remote therapy, which has enabled rehabilitation despite the restrictions of COVID-19 on accessing in-person support.
Paul, 64, survived two strokes after contracting COVID in March 2020, and turned to iReadMore to help him rediscover his love of reading.
“When I woke up after my strokes, I found it hard to see, hard to read and it was a long journey to get back to what I’d been before,” he said.
“iReadMore let me work on my reading at my own pace, I was able to do it morning and evening. I found it entertaining and I’ve been using it for some time now and it’s been a huge help.
“It really helped me get back to a point where I can enjoy reading books, newspapers and letters. It’s helped make me feel as if I’m back to life again.”
It is also being used in medical environments, forming part of the service provided by the Queen Square Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programme (ICAP) at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Thomas Langford, a PhD Student at University College London (UCL) whose studies are focused on the development of iReadMore, is working alongside Neurotherapeutics Group Leader, Professor Alexander Leff of UCL, and research associate, Dr Zoe Woodhead of the University of Oxford, who first began the iReadMore project in 2007.
“We now have a regular stream of new users each day, and people have loved the travel concept, particularly during lockdown when travel hasn’t been possible,” says Thomas.
“One really interesting area of feedback we have had has been around how the app has promoted self-management and enabled people to take charge of their rehabilitation. One of the stroke survivors who helped co-design the app spoke about how using the self-led therapy gives him a real sense of independence and control.
“I think, traditionally, apps have been seen as being useful where there was no other alternative, but COVID has helped to show the real value they have, either on their own or alongside other therapies.”
The team are now looking at how to take iReadMore forward, with a number of options being considered.
“While it is in use around the world, we would love to look at translating the therapy into other languages, potentially by collaborating with other groups to achieve this. We already have a therapy app for hemianopic alexia, ReadRight, which has been translated into Arabic, and we have seen the very positive impact of that,” says Thomas.
And such is the initial success of iReadMore, the Neurotherapeutics Group are now looking to take the app to the next level through investigating personalized optimal therapy doses and intensities, to make it as effective as possible for each user.
“Looking forward, and this would be quite revolutionary, we would love to look at a machine learning algorithm to help determine which patients would benefit most from the therapy. This would help to motivate people for whom there was a benefit, and would save a lot of time and effort for those it may not be suitable for,” he says.
“Further, using the data we’re collecting from real users, we are looking at recommending optimal doses and intensity for using the app – we don’t want users to be spending hours at a time on this when, for them, half an hour could be of equal benefit.”
* The iReadMore team is currently offering three months of free access to the app for people with reading difficulties after a post-COVID stroke or who are living with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). For anyone wishing to take part, email ireadmore@ucl.ac.uk
