Summary of the meeting held on 11.07.2008

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Those in attendance:

• Emma Stokes (TCD)
• Kate (Castlebar)
• Eithne Waldron (University Hospital Galway)
• Ola Wyszumirska (Royal Hospital Donnybrook)
• Suzanne McCabe (Naas General Hospital)
• Caitriona Ni Dhuibheannaigh (St. James's Hospital)
• Sheila McCarthy (St. James's Hospital)
• Eilis Ni Charthaigh (Cork University Hospital)
• Suzanne Noel (St. Colmcilles, Loughlinstown)
• Srini Vasan (Peaumont Hospital)
• Sean Ledger (TCD)
• Katie Hughes (TCD)
• Emma McNally (TCD)
• Eleanor O'Grady (TCD)

Discussion took place regarding members' availability to travel, given the current HSE funding cutbacks. It was decided not to change the day/time of meetings, as this was not seen to facilitate more people to travel to meetings. Perhaps more correspondence by email in the future will ease the burden of travel for some people. This mater will be readdressed should any changes in travel allowances/staffing etc occur.

PD CUEING PROJECT

• Overview of project
• Members definitely interested in participating are:
• Suzanne Noel (St. Colmcilles, Loughlinstown)
• Caitriona Ni Dhuibheannaigh & Sheila McCarthy (St. James's Hospital)
• Eilis Ni Charthaigh (Cork University Hospital)
• Ola Wyszumirska (Royal Hospital Donnybrook)
• Suzanne McCabe (Naas General Hospital)
• Ethical approval obtained from TCD.
• Copy of ethics forms, PIL, Consent form & letter of ethical approval to be sent to the above participating members.
• Copy of other outcome measures to be used (e.g. Freezing of gait survey, Fear of falling questionnaire, Hohn & Yahr, MMSE...) to be send to participating members.
• Sample size based on power calculations is n=40, which will be randomised in 2 groups of 20 for a cross-over design study.
• It was decided that patients may not be included if they are inpatients, but may be included if they are attending outpatient physio, perhaps towards the end of their treatment course, so long as they are medically stable and no major changes in gait are likely over the course of the trial. If following inclusion to the study patients become acutely unwell or if meds are changed, the patient will be excluded form the trial. Any drop-outs should be documented.
• Recruitment from the Parkinsons Association to begin in August following their summer break.
• Ola, Eilis & Sheila will try out the equipment with a few patients to get feedback regarding ease of use, headsets etc.
• It was decided the patient should be advised to wear the iPod at all times, perhaps with just one earphone in place. To avoid becoming accustomed to the beat, they should only play the beat when freezing, and turn it off when they are comfortable the freezing episode is over.
• A sample 10m walk test was performed to familiarise all with how to calculate the appropriate beat frequency.

• Copy of ethics forms, PIL, Consent form & letter of ethical approval to be sent to the above participating members.
• Copy of other outcome measures to be used (e.g. Freezing of gait survey, Fear of falling questionnaire, Hohn & Yahr, MMSE...) to be send to participating members.
• Randomisation procedures to be finalised
• Purchase more iPods, various different headsets & chargers and distribute to Ola, Eilis & Sheila.
• Download range of metronome beats onto CD.
• Prepare instructions re downloading iTunes, uploading appropriate frequency to iPod...

• Find out what local ethics requirements are. Will approval from TCD suffice? not, using the TCD ethics forms as a template, complete local ethics forms.

FALLS STUDY

• Overview: A survey of physiotherapists' practice. To what extent, and which, evidence-based guidelines are being used by physiotherapists who treat fallers.
• Members discussed whether we should be undertaking two projects at once. Would it be better to focus on one project for the moment, given that the cueing project will be a big undertaking and currently HSE funding and staffing levels are stretched? It was decided that those involved in recruiting for the PD cueing project should focus solely on it. Members who won't be recruiting, can be involved in writing up etc. Kate & Eithne Waldron interested in Falls Study.
• The online questionnaire programme 'Survey Monkey' was discussed. This programme enables people to complete a questionnaire online and the results are analysed. The licence for the programme has been purchased. The following were discussed:
• Are people more likely to fill out a survey on paper or online? Members to discuss with colleagues and feedback.
• If using Survey Monkey, a larger number could potentially be sampled with minimal extra effort. With this mind, should all ISCP members be asked to complete the survey or appropriate clinical interest groups, such as CPNG & CPCC.
• How many ISCP members have a registered email address?
• What have previous response rates to surveys of members been?
• Would offering an incentive, such as 300 Euro for the conference of your choice, attract responses?
• Those interested in the Falls study to look into the guidelines available.

• Give those interested in Survey Monkey the username & password to allow them to become familiar with it, refine questions, etc.
• Find out how many ISCP members have a registered email address, and what have previous response rates to surveys of members been.

• Those interested in the Falls study to look into the guidelines available.
• Discuss with colleagues whether they would be more likely to complete a paper or online survey.
• What incentives would motivate them?

Members informed that the paper on the Berg Minimal Detectable Change study has been sent to the International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, and we are currently awaiting reviewers' comments.

Next meeting:

It was put to a vote whether the next meeting should take place at 11am on Friday 26th September in the Physiotherapy Research Room, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences (usual venue) or in Kilkenny the weekend of 3rd/4th October to coincide with the IGS conference. It was decided to hold the next meeting at 11am on Friday 26th September, in the usual venue.