A Smart and Secure IoMT Tele-Neurorehabilitation Framework for Post-Stroke Patients

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.