Wireless support to poststroke rehabilitation: MyHeart's neurological rehabilitation concept

Recent studies suggest that the quality of recovery after a stroke can be increased by early and more intensive rehabilitation. Portable unobtrusive devices are promising candidates for the realization of stroke-rehabilitation systems that complement care in the post-acute rehabilitation phase, both in the clinic and at home. The proposed system allows patients to increase the amount of motor exercise they can perform in autonomy, providing them with a real-time feedback based on wearable sensors embedded in the garment's tissue across the upper limb and trunk. A dynamic time warping algorithm allows for the recognition of correct and incorrect motor exercises. After the feedback phase, data are stored in a central location for review and statistics. Workstations can be installed either at home or at the hospital to support patients, independent of their location. The performance of the system on healthy subjects was quantified for seven types of motor exercises for upper limb's rehabilitation. Finally, we present the preliminary results of a pilot clinical study to test the system's acceptability and usability by post-stroke patients, and physicians in a clinical setting.