Combining soft robotics and telerehabilitation for improving motor function after stroke

Abstract

Telerehabilitation and robotics, either traditional rigid or soft, have been extensively studied and used to improve hand functionality after a stroke. However, a limited number of devices combined these two technologies to such a level of maturity that was possible to use them at the patients’ home, unsupervised. Here we present a novel investigation that demonstrates the feasibility of a system that integrates a soft inflatable robotic glove, a cloud-connected software interface, and a telerehabilitation therapy. Ten chronic moderate-to-severe stroke survivors independently used the system at their home for 4 weeks, following a software-led therapy and being in touch with occupational therapists. Data from the therapy, including automatic assessments by the robot, were available to the occupational therapists in real-time, thanks to the cloud-connected capability of the system. The participants used the system intensively (about five times more movements per session than the standard care) for a total of more than 8 hr of therapy on average. We were able to observe improvements in standard clinical metrics (FMA +3.9 ± 4.0, p < .05, COPM-P + 2.5 ± 1.3, p < .05, COPM-S + 2.6 ± 1.9, p < .05, MAL-AOU +6.6 ± 6.5, p < .05) and range of motion (+88%) at the end of the intervention. Despite being small, these improvements sustained at follow-up, 2 weeks after the end of the therapy. These promising results pave the way toward further investigation for the deployment of combined soft robotic/telerehabilitive systems at-home for autonomous usage for stroke rehabilitation.

Access, Readiness and Willingness to Engage in Allied Health Telerehabilitation Services for Adults: Does Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Make a Difference?

“…Telerehabilitation is a type of telehealth focused on “the delivery of rehabilitation and habilitation services via a variety of ICT [information and communication technologies]”, with the range of services encompassing “evaluation, assessment, monitoring, prevention, intervention, supervision, education, consultation and coaching” [ 4 ]. Although telerehabilitation can involve a range of technologies (e.g., wearable sensors, telepresence robots) [ 5 , 6 ], the focus of our study is on the use of telephone and video teleconferencing for the synchronous delivery of adult outpatient allied health rehabilitation services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, dietetics and speech-language pathology.…”