2,404 research outputs found

    Upper limb-rehabilitation service system for chinese mild-stroke patients at home

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    With the continuous growth in the popularity of stroke patients in China and the increasing demand for rehabilitation services, the existing traditional hospital rehabilitation model can no longer meet the patients’ needs. In recent years, the Chinese government has focused on promoting a new model of “Internet plus medical care” and home rehabilitation. Of all the symptoms of the stroke, upper limb motor dysfunction is the most common one that causes the decline of the patients’ self-care ability and quality of life. Therefore, continuous rehabilitation training plays a vital role in the recovery of limb motor function in stroke patients with hemiplegia and can also serve as a starting point for remote rehabilitation. This thesis first summarized the fundamental upper limb movements as well as theories, high technologies and assessment methods of upper limb rehabilitation. All the literature review assists designers in understanding the necessary medical knowledge of stroke and rehabilitation. Secondly, the existing products and services of upper limb rehabilitation in China and at abroad are compared and analyzed to explore more design opportunities. Furthermore, based on the observations and interviews, the author summarized the rehabilitation needs, information needs and emotional needs of stroke patients in Shanghai, investigated design pain points, and selected target users for remote rehabilitation. Finally, a support remote upper limb rehabilitation system concept was established by adopting service design approaches and tools. Furthermore, the concept of a home rehabilitation device and a digital platform, which were two main touchpoints in this system were designed in-depth and made into the prototype for user feedback. The home rehabilitation device integrated a variety of hand grasping exercises by modularization and integrated different upper limb movements through a point-to-line method to solve the problem of lacking multi-function and miniaturization in the home environment. The digital platform used visual interfaces to provide patients with clear instructions and incentive mechanisms which prevent them from giving up rehabilitation halfway. The findings of this thesis indicated the importance of service design approaches and tools on systemic thinking and creative ideas. The design results of this project can not only help stroke patients to perform active exercises at home and improve their upper limb motor function, but also provide new visions for the development of future remote rehabilitation service system in China

    Addressing the Health Needs of an Aging America: New Opportunities for Evidence-Based Policy Solutions

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    This report systematically maps research findings to policy proposals intended to improve the health of the elderly. The study identified promising evidence-based policies, like those supporting prevention and care coordination, as well as areas where the research evidence is strong but policy activity is low, such as patient self-management and palliative care. Future work of the Stern Center will focus on these topics as well as long-term care financing, the health care workforce, and the role of family caregivers

    The Use of lmmersive Virtual Reality in Stroke Rehabilitation by Using Microsoft Kinect™

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    This report is a preliminary step onto developing a new way of rehabilitation technique for stroke patient using Microsoft Kinect as the input device. Currently, many typical virtual reality based stroke rehab has been practices to treat these patient such as treadmill, pointing device, hands glove, body suit and many more whereby they have been identified as costly, bulky and also not feasible for distance patients to have their regular set of rehab exercises. With such problems in place, it is crucial to have a better solution which could help the medical industry to stay innovative, creative and effective. Moreover, this project aims to produce a low cost home-based physical VR therapy application intended for hand stroke patients. The project will involves several phases which follow the incremental model whereby firstly the construction of the basic game environment followed by the analysis and design of the system or rehab activities requirements, the implementation of the prototype which enhanced with the usability testing result, further testing and finally the increment routines to complete the milestones

    Robotics Horizon

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    The Rt Hon David Willets, minister for Universities and Science identified the importance of Robotics and Autonomous Systems as a general technology: 'Robots acting independently of human control - which can learn, adapt and take decisions - will revolutionise our economy and society over the next 20 years' (Willetts 2013). The current report has the focus on the societal aspect of this revolution and briefly sets out the landscape of current and future robotic systems applied in everyday human life and offers a brief overview of what robotics currently is and might be about in the future. The report includes contributions from across the UK robotics community (though completeness is not claimed).The emphasis is on the application of robots operating in the vicinity of human beings that can learn, adapt and take decisions. However, the underlying enabling technologies such as machine vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence are not discussed separately

    Rehabilitation Engineering

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    Population ageing has major consequences and implications in all areas of our daily life as well as other important aspects, such as economic growth, savings, investment and consumption, labour markets, pensions, property and care from one generation to another. Additionally, health and related care, family composition and life-style, housing and migration are also affected. Given the rapid increase in the aging of the population and the further increase that is expected in the coming years, an important problem that has to be faced is the corresponding increase in chronic illness, disabilities, and loss of functional independence endemic to the elderly (WHO 2008). For this reason, novel methods of rehabilitation and care management are urgently needed. This book covers many rehabilitation support systems and robots developed for upper limbs, lower limbs as well as visually impaired condition. Other than upper limbs, the lower limb research works are also discussed like motorized foot rest for electric powered wheelchair and standing assistance device

    Emergency response model of stroke in regional medical alliances: A case study of the Western Baiyun District Stroke Alliance in Guangzhou

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    Background: A hospital alliance has been established in the western part of Guangzhou, with the initial goal of optimizing the procedures of stroke care in the region and improving the efficiency of treatment services. Comparison of data reveals that the alliance proves to be effective, but there is still a gap between its performance and the objective. Methodology: Stakeholders in the stroke alliance are identified and classified through a comprehensive review of the stakeholder theory and the synergy theory. Structural equation modeling is used to quantify the synergy of healthcare alliances. A synergistic capacity model is developed to analyze the path relationships between the variables. Results: Several rounds of questionnaire survey reveal that there are 22 stakeholders in the Western Baiyun District Stroke Alliance, including six core stakeholders, eight latent stakeholders, and eight marginal stakeholders, and “hospitals at all levels” are the central members of the core stakeholders of the Western Baiyun District Stroke Alliance. Structural equation modeling has verified that the synergy of the Western Baiyun District Stroke Alliance is an organically integrated system comprised of three levels, namely, macro level synergy, meso level synergy, and micro level synergy, with a significant positive correlation between them. The macro level synergy includes cultural synergy and strategic synergy; the meso level synergy includes system synergy, innovation synergy, and information synergy; and the micro level synergy includes business synergy and process synergy. The score of synergy of the Alliance is 3.9646, still in a medium level. Conclusion: A regional stroke alliance is an organically integrated system of macro, meso and micro level synergy, with good macro synergistic capacity and average meso and micro synergistic capacity. Synergistic factors at all levels need to be taken into consideration so as to improve the overall synergy.Antecedentes: Estabelecimento de uma aliança dos hospitais ocidentais em Guangzhou, na China. A intenção da aliança é otimizar o processo de tratamento do AVC. De acordo com os dados existentes, embora a aliança tenha alcançado alguns resultados, ainda não conseguiu atingir todos os objetivos. Metodologia: Teoria dos stakeholders e teoria da sinergia, identificação e classificação dos stakeholders da aliança médica. Quantificação da sinergia na aliança médica através de um modelo de equações estruturais, estabelecimento do modelo de sinergia e análise das relações de dependência entre as variáveis. Resultados: Administração de questionários aos 22 stakeholders da aliança, incluindo os 6 stakeholders principais, 8 stakeholders potenciais e 8 stakeholders marginais. Usando o método de análise de centralidade, provou-se que o hospital é o elemento central dos stakeholders principais. Através da utilização de modelos de equações estruturais verificou-se que a capacidade colaborativa da aliança é um sistema de competências composto pelos níveis macro, meso e micro. O nível macro inclui as sinergias cultural e estratégica; O nível meso inclui a sinergia institucional, a sinergia de inovação e a sinergia de informação; O nível micro inclui a sinergia de negócios e a sinergia de processos. O resultado da capacidade colaborativa da aliança é de 3,9646, o que representa um nível médio de sinergia. Conclusões: A aliança é um sistema de capacitação composto por três níveis: nível macro, nível meso e nível micro. A capacidade de macro sinergia é muito boa, enquanto as capacidades de meso e de micro sinergia são medianas. É preciso levar em conta os fatores de sinergia em todos os níveis para melhorar de forma abrangente a capacidade geral de sinergia

    Evaluating the impact of physical activity apps and wearables: interdisciplinary review

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    Background: Although many smartphone apps and wearables have been designed to improve physical activity, their rapidly evolving nature and complexity present challenges for evaluating their impact. Traditional methodologies, such as randomized controlled trials (RCTs), can be slow. To keep pace with rapid technological development, evaluations of mobile health technologies must be efficient. Rapid alternative research designs have been proposed, and efficient in-app data collection methods, including in-device sensors and device-generated logs, are available. Along with effectiveness, it is important to measure engagement (ie, users’ interaction and usage behavior) and acceptability (ie, users’ subjective perceptions and experiences) to help explain how and why apps and wearables work. Objectives: This study aimed to (1) explore the extent to which evaluations of physical activity apps and wearables: employ rapid research designs; assess engagement, acceptability, as well as effectiveness; use efficient data collection methods; and (2) describe which dimensions of engagement and acceptability are assessed. Method: An interdisciplinary scoping review using 8 databases from health and computing sciences. Included studies measured physical activity, and evaluated physical activity apps or wearables that provided sensor-based feedback. Results were analyzed using descriptive numerical summaries, chi-square testing, and qualitative thematic analysis. Results: A total of 1829 abstracts were screened, and 858 articles read in full. Of 111 included studies, 61 (55.0%) were published between 2015 and 2017. Most (55.0%, 61/111) were RCTs, and only 2 studies (1.8%) used rapid research designs: 1 single-case design and 1 multiphase optimization strategy. Other research designs included 23 (22.5%) repeated measures designs, 11 (9.9%) nonrandomized group designs, 10 (9.0%) case studies, and 4 (3.6%) observational studies. Less than one-third of the studies (32.0%, 35/111) investigated effectiveness, engagement, and acceptability together. To measure physical activity, most studies (90.1%, 101/111) employed sensors (either in-device [67.6%, 75/111] or external [23.4%, 26/111]). RCTs were more likely to employ external sensors (accelerometers: P=.005). Studies that assessed engagement (52.3%, 58/111) mostly used device-generated logs (91%, 53/58) to measure the frequency, depth, and length of engagement. Studies that assessed acceptability (57.7%, 64/111) most often used questionnaires (64%, 42/64) and/or qualitative methods (53%, 34/64) to explore appreciation, perceived effectiveness and usefulness, satisfaction, intention to continue use, and social acceptability. Some studies (14.4%, 16/111) assessed dimensions more closely related to usability (ie, burden of sensor wear and use, interface complexity, and perceived technical performance). Conclusions: The rapid increase of research into the impact of physical activity apps and wearables means that evaluation guidelines are urgently needed to promote efficiency through the use of rapid research designs, in-device sensors and user-logs to assess effectiveness, engagement, and acceptability. Screening articles was time-consuming because reporting across health and computing sciences lacked standardization. Reporting guidelines are therefore needed to facilitate the synthesis of evidence across disciplines
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