Focus on Patient in Virtual Reality-Assisted Rehabilitation

Abstract

Since several years scientists are carrying on research about innovative systems, based on robotics, mechatronics devices and IT tools – especially the graphical ones – to support patients in rehabilitation programs for rescuing from various brain damages due to adverse events as stroke. Training sessions with a combination of robot and virtual reality (VR) lead to better rehabilitation outcomes than using only a robot and evidence from the field proved the importance of the use of VR interfaces in rehabilitation. The main aim of such a kind of environments is to monitor, motivate and drive the patient during the rehabilitation sessions. These systems mainly provide motor guidance and multimedia communication channels also measuring patients' performance and other observable variables. The approach implemented is usually based on gaming, where the patient has the key role to perform certain tasks or movements for controlling the game in the correct way and exercise the injured part. According to daily experience from physiotherapists, different aspects related to the physical and self-perceived patients' state revealed to have a fundamental role in influencing the rehabilitation session. Indeed, the treatment result depends not only on motor skills but also on patient's personal behavior and feelings that are not directly investigable, observable and measurable from outside. In other words this kind of elements can only be assessed by subjective measurements (as questions, interviews, narratives) revealing the point of view of the patient. Moreover, the emotional state has implications at different levels: on one hand, it is important to evaluate if the single rehabilitation session affects the emotional state of the patient, on the other, if the performance was influenced by this state. Some answers of a questionnaire administrated to post-stroke patients in a previous study underlined also the need for the patient to focus his/her attention on the trained body portion and the relevance of a visual feedback on movements to increase self-awareness on the action performed, avoiding any possible distraction derived from other kind of tasks and related visual/auditory stimuli. Patient-centered models of care are actually becoming increasingly common among rehabilitation clinical settings. They help to focus the therapy on improving the treatment of those deficiencies that most influence the quality of life of the patient. Another important aspect is represented by the relationship with the caregiver that in virtually assisted rehabilitation would not be direct anymore and will need to be mediated without completely loosing natural interaction. According to this patient centered vision, and in order to reduce possible side effects related to semi-automatic rehabilitation systems, it has been studied and developed a system which has not the aim of merely entertain the patient but to focalize the rehabilitation on him/her as a proactive character aware of what is happening and of the quality of the work performed.