Project R-16607

Development of the Kids-BESTest-2 app (Research)

Children with various pathologies, such as Developmental Coordination Disorder, cerebral palsy, and vestibular disorders, experience postural control deficits. Objective and multisystemic evaluation of postural control is crucial to design and conduct an efficient and effective treatment plan. The Balance Evaluation Systems Test for Children (Kids-BESTest), recently refined into the Kids-BESTest-2 with age-specific scoring criteria and good psychometric properties, is an excellent instrument for this purpose. Despite its proven value and validity, implementation in pediatric practice remains low, primarily due to the time required (30–45 minutes for administration and 20–30 minutes for score calculation and interpretation). To increase efficiency and implementation in clinical practice, we have digitalized the Kids-BESTest-2. The already developed prototype (TRL 4) of the Kids-BESTest-2 App for smartphone and tablet automatically assigns item scores, calculates domain and total scores, and visualizes the results in a spider diagram. These functions support the therapist in clinical reasoning and formulating treatment goals, which significantly shortens the interpretation time. The goal of this CONCEPT project is the technological development of this prototype into a robust, usable, and validated application (TRL 6). This includes the technical build-out, evaluation of its validity and user experience, and therapists' willingness to pay for the application. The successful launch of the operational app is the first step in a broader valorization trajectory, followed by effectiveness research and broad implementation

01 June 2026 - 31 May 2027