Embodied-self-monitoring: Embracing the context for adherence to physical rehabilitation in the design for self-monitoring

Physical rehabilitation is increasingly recommending the rehabilitees to integrate the prescribed therapy with the specific situations of their homes as a way of encouraging adherence. In this paper, we explore how designers can draw from the physical rehabilitation practice to embrace the already ongoing ways in which the rehabilitees adhere to their prescriptions in their homes. To orient the designers towards embracing the rehabilitee engagement with the social and physical settings at home, we present the theoretical concept of embodied-self-monitoring. We demonstrate the fruitfulness of the concept by reporting findings from three design explorations. Through the presentation of the concept and the findings, we open the space for the community to not only consider how the context at home influences adherence, but to embrace this relation between context and adherence to design pervasive self-monitoring technology that the rehabilitees can engage with and make them an integral part of this emergent context.