This project is funded under a joint solicitation between the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, named "Smart and Connected Health" (SCH), which aims to accelerate the development and use of innovative approaches that would support the much needed transformation of healthcare across the entire population. Stroke is the leading cause of disability among older adults in the United States. More than 800,000 strokes occur each year and nearly one third of all stroke survivors have significant residual disability, with older individuals generally experiencing slower functional recovery. Current physical rehabilitation of such patients is primarily hospital centric. However, due to economic pressures on the U.S. health care system, stroke patients are receiving less therapy and going home after few months of acute therapy without regaining the whole functionality of their body. Moreover, many patients who have completed their acute in-patient rehabilitation following a stroke or other injury may have limited access to out-patient rehabilitation upon their return home. These patients can benefit from access and quality of care through home-based rehabilitations. The success of the home-based therapy is highly dependent on monitoring the patient compliance and designing the home-based rehabilitation that can mentally engaged the subjects. The proposed research approaches the above stated problem with two novel propositions by developing a haptic-based rehabilitation system that can be used at home.
The project is carried out as follows: First, a haptic home-based system is developed to rehabilitate Activity of Daily Living (ADL) skills in both the affected and the non-dominant/unaffected upper limb of a patient whose dominant upper limbs has been affected by some disability. Second, the research investigates the use of home centered cognitive haptic therapy by monitoring the patient's brain activity. The proposed system uses cognitive and haptic feedbacks to monitor the progress of patient and his or her engagement and adapts itself accordingly. Patient's recovery progress is evaluated through combination of 1) scores related to accuracy and completion of task and 2) subject's level of mental engagement during treatment at home. This evaluation empowers the physician to monitor the subject's performance during in-home therapy and allow him/her to adjust the haptic and simulation in an appropriate fashion. This research hypothesizes that by using haptics the effectiveness of home-centered rehabilitation therapy is effective in empowering the patient. Moreover, it is contemplated that by cognitive monitoring of subjects, it is possible to evaluate and improve patient engagement during the therapy sessions.
