Microsoft HoloLens 2 in Medical and Healthcare Context: State of the Art and Future Prospects.

In the world reference context, although virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality have been emerging methodologies for several years, only today technological and scientific advances have made them suitable to revolutionize clinical care and medical contexts through the provision of enhanced functionalities and improved health services. This systematic review provides the state-of-the-art applications of the Microsoft® HoloLens 2 in a medical and healthcare context. Focusing on the potential that this technology has in providing digitally supported clinical care, also but not only in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, studies that proved the applicability and feasibility of HoloLens 2 in a medical and healthcare scenario were considered. The review presents a thorough examination of the different studies conducted since 2019, focusing on HoloLens 2 medical sub-field applications, device functionalities provided to users, software/platform/framework used, as well as the study validation. The results provided in this paper could highlight the potential and limitations of the HoloLens 2-based innovative solutions and bring focus to emerging research topics, such as telemedicine, remote control and motor rehabilitation.

Biopotential Signal Monitoring Systems in Rehabilitation: A Review.

Monitoring physical activity in medical and clinical rehabilitation, in sports environments or as a wellness indicator is helpful to measure, analyze and evaluate physiological parameters involving the correct subject's movements. Thanks to integrated circuit (IC) technologies, wearable sensors and portable devices have expanded rapidly in monitoring physical activities in sports and tele-rehabilitation. Therefore, sensors and signal acquisition devices became essential in the tele-rehabilitation path to obtain accurate and reliable information by analyzing the acquired physiological signals. In this context, this paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the recent advances in electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG) and electromyogram (EMG) signal monitoring systems and sensors that are relevant to the field of tele-rehabilitation and health monitoring. Mostly, we focused our contribution in EMG signals to highlight its importance in rehabilitation context applications. This review focuses on analyzing the implementation of sensors and biomedical applications both in literature than in commerce. Moreover, a final review discussion about the analyzed solutions is also reported at the end of this paper to highlight the advantages of physiological monitoring systems in rehabilitation and individuate future advancements in this direction. The main contributions of this paper are (i) the presentation of interesting works in the biomedical area, mainly focusing on sensors and systems for physical rehabilitation and health monitoring between 2016 and up-to-date, and (ii) the indication of the main types of commercial sensors currently being used for biomedical applications.

SIMpLE: A Mobile Cloud-Based System for Health Monitoring of People with ALS.

Adopting telemonitoring services during the pandemic for people affected by chronic disease is fundamental to ensure access to health care services avoiding the risk of COVID-19 infection. Among chronic diseases, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease of adulthood, caused by the loss of spinal, bulbar and cortical motor neurons, which leads to paralysis of the voluntary muscles and, also, involves respiratory ones. Therefore, remote monitoring and teleconsulting are essential services for ALS patients with limited mobility, as the disease progresses, and for those living far from ALS centres and hospitals. In addition, the COVID 19 pandemic has increased the need to remotely provide the best care to patients, avoiding infection during ALS centre visits. The paper illustrates an innovative, secure medical monitoring and teleconsultation mobile cloud-based system for disabled people, such as those with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). The design aims to remotely monitor biosignals, such as ECG (electrocardiographic) and EMG (electromyographic) signals of ALS patients in order to prevent complications related to the pathology.

Motor-Imagery EEG-Based BCIs in Wheelchair Movement and Control: A Systematic Literature Review.

The pandemic emergency of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shed light on the need for innovative aids, devices, and assistive technologies to enable people with severe disabilities to live their daily lives. EEG-based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) can lead individuals with significant health challenges to improve their independence, facilitate participation in activities, thus enhancing overall well-being and preventing impairments. This systematic review provides state-of-the-art applications of EEG-based BCIs, particularly those using motor-imagery (MI) data, to wheelchair control and movement. It presents a thorough examination of the different studies conducted since 2010, focusing on the algorithm analysis, features extraction, features selection, and classification techniques used as well as on wheelchair components and performance evaluation. The results provided in this paper could highlight the limitations of current biomedical instrumentations applied to people with severe disabilities and bring focus to innovative research topics.