Implementation and Assessment of an Intelligent Motor Tele-Rehabilitation Platform

Abstract

Over the past few years, software applications for medical assistance, including tele-rehabilitation, have known an increasing presence in the health arena. Despite the several therapeutic and economic advantages of this new paradigm, it is important to follow certain guidelines, in order to build a safe, useful, scalable, and ergonomic tool. This work proposes to address all these points, through the case study of a physical tele-rehabilitation platform for patients after hip replacement surgery. The scalability and versatility of the system is handled by the implementation of a modular architecture. The safeness and effectiveness of the tool is ensured by an artificial intelligence module that assesses the quality of the movements performed by the user. The usability of the application is evaluated by a cognitive walkthrough method. Results show that the system (i) is able to properly assess the correctness of the human’s motion through two possible methods (Dynamic Time Warping and Hidden Markov Model), and (ii) provides a good user experience. The discussion addresses (i) the advantages and disadvantages of the main approaches for a gesture recognition of therapeutic movements, and (ii) critical aspects to provide the patient with the best usability of a tele-rehabilitation platform.

Toward a Design of a Telerehabilitation Program for the Functional Recovery in Post-Hip Arthroplasty Patients

“…The results of other studies were similar to these showing that it is possible to capture and analyze movement using a low cost system [32]. Consequently, the assessment of different types of movements, both in healthy people and in patients, has a high consistency rate among PTs and the system that is intended to be incorporated into a low-cost rehabilitation platform.…”

“…In addition, high levels of satisfaction and comfort were reported, as well as significant savings in time and travel costs of users [26,31]. A recent study has aimed to develop a low-cost, online TR platform intended to evaluate and monitor patients after a total hip arthroplasty [32].…”

“…In order to avoid these situations, TR platforms should include links providing the necessary therapeutic information to prevent an accident or detect a wrong execution of the exercises. Likewise, the platform should be equipped with a control system able to allow the session to the patient, as well as disable it if necessary [32].…”

“…The program stages are shown in Figure 3. For the instant, some exercises of the program have been validated in healthy people and patients with THA [32,41].…”

“…We will present the results of one [32], out of three preliminary studies, obtained after the implementation of some exercises proposed in this program. To record all movements a Kinect camera located approximately two meters away from the subjects was used.…”