Collaborative virtual rehabilitation system with home treatment integration

Abstract

Patient adherence to home exercise regimens, critical in achieving ideal treatment outcomes for physical therapy, is typically poor. Further, therapists lack quantitative data to review a patient's performance. In this work, we propose a virtual rehabilitation system for home exercise with continuous monitoring and quantitative performance measurements packaged with a fun and engaging interface. The solution is a complete feedback loop where the physical therapist and patient make shared decisions about appropriate regimens, patients use a sensor-enabled gaming interface at home to perform exercises, quantitative data is fed back to the therapist, and the therapist is able to properly adjust the regimen and give reinforcing feedback and social support. The system aims to address the multi-factorial nature of poor adherence and to apply appropriate behavior change models and persuasive feedback mechanisms. In addition, it will capture critical objective data that will help to guide therapy practices on both the individual and community level.