RehabTouch: A mixed-reality gym for rehabilitating the hands, arms, trunk, and legs after stroke

Overof theindividuals who survive a stroke each year have persistent movement impairmentsIntensive rehabilitation could reduce their impairmentsbut access to such therapy is limitedHome therapy could supplement time with a therapistbut the current standard of care is simply providing individuals printed sheets of exercisesan approach that is not motivating and often not effectiveTechnological solutions do existbut they are either too expensive or are only intended to treat a small subset of the broad range of movement impairments individuals with stroke experiencewhich has limited their wide spread adoptionThe goal of this Phase II SBIR is to develop and test RehabToucha mixed reality gym for motivating and monitoring handarmtrunkand leg exercises after strokeRehabTouch is an affordable rehabilitation tool consisting of two wireless input devices called pucks that each contain an array of sensorsThe pucks connect to a software application that can direct users to perform exercises that are appropriate for their specific impairments and then detect when repetitions of those exercises are completedWe have shown that RehabTouch can detect the completion ofdifferent exercisesand that individuals with even severe motor impairment after stroke are able to complete hundreds of repetitions with RehabTouch and find the system to be motivatingvaluableand easy to useWe thus hypothesize that home therapy with RehabTouch will be feasible for individuals with a broad range of impairmentsand more motivating and effective than the current standard of practiceprinted sheets of exercisesThe aims of this Phase II grant are toImplement a comprehensive library of handarmtrunkand leg exercises appropriate for individuals with mildmoderateand severe motor impairments by partnering with experienced PTs and OTsDevelop a data driven exercise personalization system for RehabTouch that recommends appropriate exercises and intensity levels for individual usersandDetermine the safety and effectiveness of home based movement training with RehabTouch for improving motor function in a randomized controlled trial with individuals with subacute strokeNWe hypothesize that individuals who exercise with RehabTouch will exercise for a longer durationand have significantly greater increases in FuglMeyer score and other impairmentand function related outcomes than individuals who perform conventional therapyWe will also analyze the data from this study to determine if RehabTouch is appropriate for individuals with a broad range of impairmentsIf successfulthis project will result in a commercially readyclinically validated home therapy tool that could become widely adopted in actual practicethus reducing long term movement impairments after stroke