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Unsupervised Therapy After Stroke in the Home Setting with a Hand Rehabilitation Device (ReHandyBot)
Sponsor: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Summary
The ReHandyBot is a robot for hand rehabilitation after stroke. The aims of this study are (1) to investigate the feasibility of unsupervised therapy with the ReHandyBot with stroke inpatients, first in a rehabilitation clinic and then at participants' home, (2) to evaluate the usability of the ReHandyBot (user interface, implemented exercises, and gaming environment, which were adapted for independent usage), and (3) to quantify the dose of additional robotic therapy that patients perform without supervision. The study consists of two primary phases. The first is a familiarization phase performed at the clinic, where therapists teach to the participants how to perform the exercises with the robot. Then, if capable of training with the robot safely, after discharge from the clinic participants can bring the robot home and autonomously train with it. The hypothesis is that unsupervised therapy might be a possible way to increase therapy dose for stroke patients, with the potential to further improve recovery of hand function, with minimal additional burden for therapists and for the healthcare system.
Official title: Feasibility of Unsupervised Therapy After Stroke in the Home Setting with a Hand Rehabilitation Device (ReHandyBot): an Exploratory Study
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - 90 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
15
Start Date
2023-11-13
Completion Date
2026-04
Last Updated
2024-11-01
Healthy Volunteers
No
Conditions
Interventions
Supervised and minimally-supervised therapy with ReHandyBot
During the familiarization phase at the rehabilitation clinic, participants perform one week of supervised and one week of minimally-supervised therapy with the ReHandyBot under the supervision of a supervisor (i.e., therapist or researcher). Minimally-supervised therapy means that participants try to perform therapy with the device by themselves, while the supervisor is still present but helps only in case participants encounter problems or if they have any questions. During the supervised and minimally-supervised phases (first 2 weeks), the intervention dose is 5 sessions of approximately 45 minutes per week. These sessions are performed in addition to the conventional therapy plan. During each session, the robot proposes a set of 3 exercises, each lasting between 10 and 15 minutes.
Unsupervised therapy
After the familiarization phase, participants train without supervision at the clinic until discharge and then at home for six weeks. If the therapist thinks that the participant have properly learnt how to use the device and can train with it safely, the participant can keep training with the device unsupervised (both at the clinic and at home). If participants are not ready for unsupervised therapy with the device, they receive a booklet of exercises to perform without supervision (both at the clinic and at home). These exercises do not imply the use of the robot but are exercises discussed with the therapists and meaningful for the specific patient.
Locations (1)
Clinica Hildebrand Centro di riabiliazione Brissago
Brissago, Canton Ticino, Switzerland