Sensor-based telerehabilitation system increases patient adherence after knee surgery

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Digital Health Technologies
• Orthopedics

Background:

• Telerehabilitation offers potential for patient-individualised and situation-specific adaptations to evidence-based recommendations.
• Integrating digital medical devices (DMDs) into home-based settings may enhance adherence and clinical outcomes in rehabilitation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the implementation capacity and usage patterns of a digital medical device (DMD) in a multinational, home-based telerehabilitation setting.
• To compare the adherence and effectiveness of DMD-assisted telerehabilitation against standard physiotherapy for patients with knee injuries.

Main Methods:

• A registry-embedded hybrid design incorporating a multinational registry analysis (Part 1) and a prospective, single-blinded, multicentre intervention study (Part 2).
• The digital medical device (DMD) integrated an inertial motion-sensor system with smartphone-based exercise instructions and functional tests.
• Health care provider (HCP) usage patterns of the DMD were also assessed (Part 3).

Main Results:

• Analysis of 10,311 measurements from 604 DMD users showed clinically expected rehabilitation progression post-knee injuries.
• DMD users demonstrated significantly higher adherence (86%) compared to the control group (74%) (p<0.05) and performed exercises with greater intensity.
• Health care providers utilized DMD data for clinical decision-making, with no adverse events reported.

Conclusions:

• Novel, high-quality digital medical devices can increase adherence to standard therapy recommendations in telerehabilitation.
• The DMD shows high potential for improving clinical rehabilitation outcomes, enabling effective, evidence-based telerehabilitation.
• DMD-facilitated telerehabilitation provides valuable insights into stage-specific recovery through objective performance metrics.