Saskia Baltrusch

26 Chapter 2 Table 1: Discussion guide for patients (left) and healthcare professionals (right). Patients Healthcare Professionals 1) Round of introductions Introducing yourself with the help of your personal keyring Tell us something about yourself by explaining the keys on your keyring 2) What was a key moment with regard to your low-back pain? What was a key moment with regard of your work with low-back pain patients? 3) Tell us about your personal situation and how you deal with low-back pain Exercises, medical devices, pain killer, physiotherapy What do you like/dislike? Which situation sticks most in your memory? What are the problems? What are your treatment methods? 4) Try to think back to a situation in the past in which you had problems due to your low-back pain. Try to think back to a situation in the past in which you had problems with regard to patients with low-back pain. 5) Could patients come up with an idea of how to solve that problem? Collect on a whiteboard 6) Trying out and explaining an existing exoskeleton Video How does this exoskeleton work? 7) What does an exoskeleton need to provide to make you use it? (green card) What could be a problem that would limit your use of an exoskeleton? (red card) What does the exoskeleton need to provide to the patient? (green card) What could be a problem that would limit their use of an exoskeleton? (red card) 8) Do you think an exoskeleton could help you? (in the situation of point 2) 9) Closing Do you think you would use an exoskeleton? Participants tried on the exoskeleton and performed some simple tasks, such as walking, sitting, bending forward. The participants were clearly informed that the device used in the try-out was only an example and that questions in the focus group were still designed to elicit opinions about the potential use of exoskeletons in general. We did not aim for an evaluation of the tried-out exoskeleton. We concluded both focus groups with a summary of the findings. Any additional remarks were noted. Both sessions were conducted in Dutch language and lasted between 90 and 120 mins.