Smarter rehab
Technology such as VR, robotics, apps and brain implants, adopted where it helps.
Interviews7 OctNR Times caught up with the co-founder of access: technology north to find out its secret to getting people engaged with the tools they need to support them.
Around four years ago, when Mike Thrussell’s caseload of people with learning difficulties and disabilities needing support with assistive technologies began to grow, he went to his wife Kelly with a suggestion. At first Kelly, who has a background in teaching, was unsure. "I’ve worked with people with learning difficulties for years, and I’ve seen that other people’s experience with assistive technology hasn’t always been positive, so I wanted to approach this differently,” she says.
Smarter rehab8 SepAfter a stroke, up to one in three survivors will experience a condition called spatial neglect – but researchers say there isn’t enough research being done into the condition.
Spatial neglect is a type of vision loss, where a stroke survivor loses awareness of one side. It’s most common after strokes to the right hemisphere, where people will be unaware of objects or people on the right side, says Helen Morse, PhD student University of East Anglia, funded by the Stroke Association. People with spatial neglect don’t have anything physically wrong with their eyes that causes these problems. Morse calls it a ‘complex and bizarre condition’ that can also affect other ways people receive information, such as visually, as well as their hearing and sense of touch. This, she says, makes it a difficult condition to measure, detect and treat.
Smarter rehab8 SepResearchers analysed twelve studies that looked at VR-enhanced rehab, and concluded it can offer long-term positive outcomes for patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBI), especially those with motor skills and cognitive deficits, and those experiencing difficulties with their balance.
One of the benefits of VR rehab is that it can provide a safe environment for people to practice skills with minimal risk of harming. Some VR platforms, the paper states, can model almost any type of environment that may be useful for rehabilitating motor skills including walking, balancing and moving on different types of terrain.
Smarter rehab14 MayThe researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, have clinically validated and tested the AI on large sets of CT scans, and found that it was successfully able to detect, segment, quantify and differentiate different types of brain lesions. The results could be useful in large-scale research studies, for developing more personalised treatments for head injuries and, with further validation, could be useful in certain clinical scenarios, such as those where radiological expertise is at a premium. Head injury is a huge public health burden around the world and affects up to 60 million people each year.
Tech & industry4 MayBack in 2000, the world was a very different place, particularly in terms of technology. Many of the high-tech innovations we now accept as standard were not yet launched and healthcare remained one of the most traditional markets around. Yet into this climate, Hocoma launched the prototype of its pioneering Lokomat, a robotic medical device which provides repetitive and highly physiological gait training to patients, enabling even some of the most impaired to learn to walk again.
Tech & industry23 MarThe agreement means people with spinal cord injuries in Germany could benefit from use of the ReWalk 6.0 exoskeleton sysyem. This deal could have a significant impact for spinal cord injured individuals. Under this agreement, eligible beneficiaries will be able to obtain a ReWalk 6.0 exoskeleton device for use in the home that will enable them to stand and walk again, after successful training and verification by the medical service. Three SCI beneficiaries have already received access on the back of the news.
Tech & industry16 JanMost severe TBIs are treated in intensive care units (ICUs), but in spite of proper and high- quality care, about one in three patients dies, researchers behind the study say. Their paper aims to use AI to tackle the challenge of accurately monitoring TBI patients in intensive care when they are unconscious. The Finnish researchers say: “In the ICU, many tens of variables are continuously monitored – such as intracranial pressure, mean arterial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure – that indirectly give information regarding the condition of the patient. “However, only one variable, such as intracranial pressure, may yield hundreds of thousands of data points per day. Thus, it is impossible for the human brain to comprehend the resulting millions of daily collected data points from all monitored data.”
Tech & industry4 DecWhile exoskeletons have been in existence for several years, it is only more recently the star as a rehab tool is rising. Usage among people with severe injuries has increased significantly, and the benefits they can bring to their lives are becoming more widely recognised.
The year ahead is seen as a potentially very significant period in the further development of the exoskeleton, with increasingly high-technology versions being developed, alongside those made for a home environment, rather than a traditional clinical setting.
Many sceptics still point to cost as being a prohibitive factor in the more mainstream use of exoskeletons, but ongoing medical trials are generating new levels of interest and attracting funding to aid
Smarter rehab3 SepEngineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a magnetically steerable, thread-like robot that can actively glide through narrow, winding pathways, such as those found in the brain. In the future, this robotic thread may enable doctors to remotely guide the robot through a patient’s brain vessels to quickly treat blockages and lesions; according to an MIT press release. Xuanhe Zhao, associate professor of mechanical engineering and of civil and environmental engineering at MIT, says: “If acute stroke can be treated within the first 90 minutes or so, patients’ survival rates could increase significantly.
Tech & industry19 JulRobot pets
We have robot pet dogs and cats, and even a monkey and a horse. They respond to touch/voice commands, carry out movements and vocalise. They are primarily used to promote engagement by the patient, encourage pleasant feelings which helps set them in a good mood to participate in therapy, promote positive bonds with staff, and as a source of distraction should the patient start engaging in disruptive behaviours. For selected patients who have favourite smells, we can spray specific odours on the pets, so that all of the sensory modalities are engaged for a pleasant experience.
