Using the lens of assistive technology to develop a technology translation readiness assessment tool (TTRAT)(TM) to evaluate market readiness

Purpose: Assistive Technologies encompass a wide array of products, services, healthcare standards, and the systems that support them. Product/market fit is necessary for a technology to be transferred successfully. Current tools lack variables that are key to technology transfer, and current trainings do not have a validated tool to assess the effectiveness of a training, increasing innovators' readiness for technology transfer. The goal was to develop a tool to evaluate the readiness of a technology by incorporating other models and focusing beyond just commercialization. Materials and Methods: The development involved five stages: 1. Review of current tools used in technology transfer in academic, government, and industry settings; 2. Development of the draft version of the tool with internal review; 3. Alpha version review and refinement, 4. Content validation of the tool's beta version; 5. Assessment of the readiness tool for reliability and preparedness for wide-use dissemination. Results: The tool was revised and validated to 6 subscales and 25 items. The assistive technology subscale was removed from the final version to eliminate repetitive questions and taking into consideration that the tool could be used across technologies. Conclusions: We developed a flexible assessment tool that looked beyond just commercial success and considered the problem being solved, implications on or input from stakeholders, and sustainability of a technology. The resulting product, the Technology Translation Readiness Assessment Tool (TTRAT) T , has the potential to be used to evaluate a broad range of technologies and assess the success of training programs.