Project description
Technological support for stroke patients
A third of the 15 million people worldwide who suffer a stroke each year are left permanently disabled, with serious consequences for daily life, family and society. In Europe, stroke survivors make up the second-biggest group of disabled persons. Upper limb weakness is the most resistant challenge in their rehabilitation treatment, requiring long-time, precise and complex exercise daily with limited supervision of healthcare professionals, due to low resources. To support those patients, the EU-funded Rehab-Assessment project will develop a new approach based on application of the comprehensive, quantitative, objective and personalised Motor Impairment Index (MII) that benchmarks the impaired arm with the healthy one in mirrored exercise for improved effects of rehabilitation.
Objective
Globally, 15 million people suffer a stroke every year, causing 6 million deaths and leaving another 5 million permanently disabled, which makes stroke the second leading cause of disability. In the Europe, it is the most common cause of morbidity and long-term disability, and has significant socioeconomic consequences for patients, their partners and society. Thus far, upper limb weakness remains the biggest and most challenging disability, due to the complexity of movement required in daily living and its generally slower and less complete recovery. More than 50% of stroke survivors still have upper extremity hemiparesis one year after stroke.
Neuro rehabilitation is the main approach to improve upper extremity motor outcome, and previous studies have demonstrated that patients can regain considerable motor functions after intensive training. With the number of people surviving a stroke soaring, more and more rehabilitation programs are delivered with minimal involvement of a physiotherapist due to limited resource available, and the success of this approach depends on the accurate assessment of stroke patients’ movement impairment. In collaboration with with the National Demonstration Centre in Rehabilitation Medicine, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, my vision is therefore to establish a comprehensive, quantitative, objective and personalised Motor Impairment Index (MII), via benchmarking the impaired arm movement to healthy arm mirrored exercise to quantify the motor impairment. This approach will increase the likelihood of successful rehabilitation leading to improved quality of life for millions of people affected by stroke. This application focuses on developing innovative healthcare technologies for stroke patients; but it could also potentially benefit millions of people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis, brain tumours and spinal cord injury, as well as people with musculoskeletal conditions or trauma.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
LS2 9JT Leeds
United Kingdom