Making Best Use of Home-Based Rehabilitation Robots

Abstract

Large-scale clinical trials have shown that rehabilitation robots are as affective as conventional therapy, but the cost-effectiveness is preventing their uptake. This study investigated whether a low-cost rehabilitation robot could be deployed in a home setting for rehabilitation of people recovering from stroke (n = 16) and whether clinical outcome measures correlated well with kinematic measures gathered by the robot. The results support the feasibility of patients independently using the robot with improvement in both clinical measures and kinematic data. We recommend using kinematic data early in an intervention to detect improvement while using a robotic device. The kinematic measures in the assessment task (hits/minute and normalised jerk) adequately pick up changes within a four-week period, thus allowing the rehabilitation regime to be adapted to suit the user’s needs. Estimating the long-term clinical benefit must be explored in future research.

The use of home-based digital technology to support post-stroke upper limb rehabilitation: A scoping review

“…A total of 45 studies 15,17–21,23,26–29,33,35,36,40,42,43,45,46,49,52–56,61–66,68,69,71,72,74,77–79,82–85,89,91 deployed games for home-based upper limb rehabilitation following stroke. Of these, 15 articles 15,18,20,28,29,33,35,42,45,46,56,72,82,84,91 found a VR game to be a feasible, well-received, and safe intervention to use at home for people with chronic hemiparesis following stroke.…”

“…Patients have shown a high level of adherence, 97.8%, to gamificationmediated rehabilitative exercises. 101 This review identified 45,15,[17][18][19][20][21]23,[26][27][28][29]33,35,36,40,42,43,45,46,49,[52][53][54][55][56][61][62][63][64][65][66]68,69,71,72,74,[77][78][79][82][83][84][85]89,91 studies in which various types of digital games had been deployed as part of the intervention for homebased post-stroke upper limb rehabilitation. These games were augmented with/without virtual/immersive reality, and played via computer, mobile phone, and other digital devices and the participants were able to engage in rehabilitation activities based upon gamification within the home setting.…”

“…103 Robotics has also been applied in eight studies. 27,41,49,55,69,79,83,85 Robots have been used for upper limb rehabilitation in several ways. One common approach was the use of robotic devices that guide the movement of a patient's arm through a range of motion.…”

“…Prominent improvements in clinical outcomes were also evidenced in 8 studies 27,41,49,55,69,79,83,85 that explored the effectiveness of a robotic device, using a computer-assisted arm rehabilitation by stroke survivors with upper limb weakness. In the majority of the studies that involve robotic interventions, significant clinical outcomes were recorded.…”

“…15,[17][18][19][20][21]23,[26][27][28][29]33,35,36,40,42,43,45,46,49,[52][53][54][55][56][61][62][63][64][65][66]68,69,71,72,74,[77][78][79][82][83][84][85]89,91 …”