Authors:
Cristina Rodriguez-de-Pablo
1
;
Joel C. Perry
1
;
Sivakumar Balasubramanian
1
;
Aitor Belloso
1
;
Andrej Savić
2
;
Tijana Dimkić Tomić
3
and
Thierry Keller
1
Affiliations:
1
TECNALIA, Spain
;
2
TECNALIA Serbia Ltd and University of Belgrade - School of Electrical Engineering, Serbia
;
3
Clinic for rehabilitation Dr Miroslav Zotović and University of Belgrade, Serbia
Keyword(s):
Serious Games, Upper-limb Rehabilitation, Robotic Rehabilitation, Quantitative Assessment, Reach Training, Motivation, Stroke, Home-based Telerehabilitation.
Abstract:
Research shows that better results in post-stroke rehabilitation are obtained when patients receive more
intensive therapy. However, the increasing affected population and the limited healthcare resources prevent
the provision of intense rehabilitation care. Thus, there is a need for a more autonomous and scalable care
provision methods that can be transferred out of the clinic and into home environments. Serious games in
combination with robotic rehabilitation can provide an affordable, engaging, and effective way to intensify
treatment, both at the clinic and at home. Furthermore, they can offer quantitative assessment of motor
performance, allowing individualized treatments and to keep the patient and their therapists informed about
therapy progress. Towards this end, a set of games for assessment and training of upper-limb motor
impairment after stroke with the ArmAssist is presented. A special effort has been made to design the
assessment games in order to be able, not only to m
easure the effectiveness of the training, but also to
compare the assessment results with the standard assessment scales used in the clinic. Feedback from
usability testing of previous versions of the system has also been crucial for the final design. Preliminary
results of an ongoing clinical testing are presented.
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