Saskia Baltrusch

24 Chapter 2 to the patients’ story and explore individual beliefs. Such a user-centered approach, when used in medical device development, improves patient safety [18] and health outcomes [19], increases user satisfaction [20] and ensures usability and functionality [21]. Involving end-users in the early development of assistive technology can help to provide a way of formulating or verifying design specifications [22]. Still, previous studies on developing exoskeletons have not considered psychological factors through involvement of end-users. A literature review by Hill et al. (2017) [23] has shown that the scientific community responsible for developing exoskeleton technology, has not sought to understand the needs and desires of individuals who may ultimately benefit from using an exoskeleton. For assistive technology for people with low back pain both, patients and healthcare professionals, should be included as potential end-users. According to Darlow et al. (2012) [24], there is strong evidence that healthcare professionals’ attitudes and beliefs are associated with the beliefs of their patients, indicating that both perspectives are important to identify criteria for an exoskeleton. Healthcare professionals may be in a position to facilitate or limit uptake of new technology due to communication strategies towards the patients.. Therefore, the aim of this focus group study was to identify criteria to be considered in the early development phase of an exoskeleton by exploring the perceptions and expectations of patients and healthcare professionals towards the potential use of an exoskeleton. 2 Methods We used focus group discussions to explore and clarify the perceptions of patients and healthcare professionals as potential end-users regarding the usability of exoskeletons. Using focus groups is a qualitative research method that explicitly exploits group interaction to help participants to identify their own views by discussing, explaining or disagreeing with others and offer insight into shared experiences and voiced opinions [25, 26].