Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
disability, and improve motor function. But this is at the expense of
possibly developing abnormal motor control patterns. Additionally, long-
term therapy outside of the initial acute inpatient rehabilitation is rarely
provided. However, with the availability of devices that can be controlled
(directly or remotely) by therapists, subjects can receive meaningful ther-
apy long after the initial acute rehabilitation therapy.
•
Repetitive task-oriented therapy can be labor intensive and time consuming -
Repetitive movement therapy has been observed to produce positive
clinical outcomes by several studies. A meta-analysis of 9 controlled
clinical studies revealed that training intensity has a significant effect on
improving motor outcomes (Kwakkel
et al.
(1997)). In addition to high
intensity, practicing movements that are task-oriented and functionally
meaningful to the patient can result in better motor outcomes than that of
conventional therapeutic techniques (Page (2003)). This type of therapy,
however, is labor intensive and time consuming. But with the use of
programmable robotic devices, some of the aspects of this therapy can be
automated to relieve some burden off the therapist and expanding their
ability to provide more efficient service.
•
Robots can provide unparalleled objective measurement of patient's movement
-
Current evaluation techniques used in rehabilitation clinics can be very
subjective. Although the reliability of some of these evaluation methods
have been demonstrated, there is still a lot of room for subjective inter-
pretation of a person's movement ability. Additionally, the use of ordinal
scales to rate movement performances is not optimal because such a scale
lacks the sensitivity to measure small but significant changes that might
occur with therapy. Thus, objective measures of subject performance
with good sensitivity are very important for the therapy process. These
measures will not only enable us to keep track of a subject's progress
during therapy but will also be useful in evaluating the efficacy of newly
developed therapy techniques.
•
Robots can provide novel sensorimotor stimulation to the patient, which would
be impossible for a therapist to simulate
- The sensorimotor stimuli that can
be provided by a human therapist are often highly variable and limited in
variety when compared to that of a robotic device. A robot can be easily
programmed to provide various force fields in which the patient can train
movements.
•
Robots can be easily combined with other rehabilitation technologies such as
virtual-reality and haptic technology.
•
Robots can also serve as tools for studying motor control
- Due to its intrinsic
precision and the built-in actuating and sensing abilities, robotic devices
can generate/simulate controlled motor conditions and provide real-time
assessment of motor function performance and learning process.
