Toward the design of a wearable system for fall-risk detection in telerehabilitation

Telemedicine represents a valid aid in rehabilitation process. A remote therapist in a telerehabilitation program could monitor daily motion activity and assign motion-rehabilitation tools on the basis of the fall risk. However, one problem is detection of the fall risk itself. Web-based video-camera images alone do not help the remote assessment of the fall risk using the most commonly used qualitative tests based on visual observation. A novel wearable system to assess fall risk in telerehabilitation has been proposed based on an Inertial Measurement Unit and a medical protocol. It provides a score in four levels (1: no fall risk; 4: major fall risk). The telemedicine tool is integrated to the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) net. Each component of the wearable system has been designed and integrated. Each component in the system has been tested individually and in a closed loop. One subject was monitored in a telemedicine link. The test showed a high degree of acceptance. The tool will be furnished to subjects along with a homecare device for daily routine monitoring of motion activity and could eventually be integrated with other systems designed to monitor other physiological parameters along with different aids and monitoring tools.