What is SMART?

The Sensory Modality Assessment and Rehabilitation Technique (SMART) is a clinical tool for the assessment and rehabilitation of people with disorders of conciousness following severe brain injury.

SMART was pioneered at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (RHN) and has been continually refined since it was conceived in 1988. It is designed specifically to:

Identify potential awareness in adults who have sustained profound brain damage and been diagnosed as in a vegetative state (VS) and have been deemed to be unaware of themselves or their environment.
Identify the functional and communication capabilities of patients in a minimally conscious state (MCS) where no consistency has been established or where no clear method of communication exists.

Whilst a range of useful assessments exists for this client group, SMART is the only tool currently available that provides an extensive range of sensory techniques – built on evidence-based practice – which offers the patient the opportunity to demonstrate meaningful responses and evidence of awareness over time. It offers a standardised approach to ensuring that all potential abilities are fully explored; functional and communication capacity is optimised; an accurate diagnosis is made and an effective rehabilitation programme formulated.

Due to the expertise required SMART can only be carried out by an accredited SMART assessor who has completed the full SMART training programme.