ABSTRACT
The physical therapy generally requires direct assistance from therapists continuously, however, the time is very limited. Moreover, the social distancing policy in the COVID-19 pandemic period made the patient could not come to rehabilitation center for physical therapy. Remote physical therapy is suggested to reduce dependency of therapist for conducting the physical therapy. However, there is few information about the necessary parameters in lower limb monitoring of post-stroke patient. Therefore, in this paper, a review for designing a low-cost online homecare physical therapy monitoring system is proposed. Article finding had been done using online search engine Google Scholars to conclude the design of the online monitoring system. Several keywords had been used, such as “online stroke rehabilitation monitoring,” “stroke rehabilitation parameters,” “stroke monitoring Internet of Things,” and “lower limb stroke monitoring.” The results show that the necessary monitor parameters are lower limb kinematics and dynamics, which can be complimented by bio-signal data, such as EMG. The lower limb monitoring system can use IMU, muscle sensor, and footswitches to measure the necessary parameters. IMU measures the lower limb kinematics because it provides wide range of measurement. Muscle sensor, which compatible to microcontroller, measures the EMG. Lastly, the footswitches detect the gait phases, which classify the measured data for more in-depth analysis. The mentioned sensors are cheap and available in the online market of Indonesia, which is suitable to realize a low-cost lower limb monitoring system. The research finding also suggests quick and accurate feedback mechanism for improving the training quality, which the feedback is combination of therapist opinion and artificial intelligence prediction. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemic adversely challenged the healthcare system in an unprecedented way. Access to neurorehabilitation programme for patients with stroke and other neurological disability was severely restricted including shutting down of most community-based and outpatient facilities. There is hardly any organised virtual programme of exploring any potential of stretching and exercising of muscles needed in a rehabilitation programme. There is an impetus to innovate service developments, while the risks and fear of contracting the coronavirus remain prevalent. We propose a framework for developing a novel tele-neurorehabilitation system that will guide the patients to perform therapeutic exercises, as proposed by the clinicians, remotely. The system will allow patients to directly interact with doctors through a secure audio–video online portal. Wearable motion tracking sensors will be integrated within a hardware-based home setting for gathering performance data live from patients while they are performing exercises. The paper describes the design components of the framework justifying the tools, hardware, and protocols required to implement a secure online portal for tele-neurorehabilitation. Specifications of the core architectural layers have been reported. Some preliminary work demonstrates how the framework specifies capturing and analysing of physiological data using wearable sensors, as well as displaying of gait parameters on a software dashboard. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.