Advantages:
- Quantitative and objective assessment device to track a patient’s functional progress.
- Real-time personalized feedback for optimized treatment.
- Standardized and consistent evaluations across therapists and sessions.
Summary:
Physical therapists (PTs) assist patients in completing a variety of rehabilitation tasks such as reaching, gait, balance, and so on. PTs classify the amount of assistance a patient requires to complete the rehabilitation task. Termed "levels of assistance" (LOAs), these categories are crucial in tracking a patient's functional progress. LOAs are used to determine the Plan of Care and communicate between therapists for patient hand off. However, inconsistency and error are introduced to this process between PTs by the qualitative scales used by each PT.
Our inventors developed a custom robotic patient replica device to simulate a patient's arm for improved physical therapy training and evaluation. Physical therapists and physical therapy students interact with the device to assist in a reaching task where the device ("patient") has to reach out to a target. With advanced hand and elbow interfaces, equipped with highly sensitive force sensors, this innovative technology provides real-time and personalized feedback to physical therapists, empowering them to fine-tune treatment plans with unparalleled accuracy. By providing uniform and accurate quantitative data resulting from provided therapies and introducing standardized assessments, this cutting-edge solution facilitates advancements in physical therapy training techniques.
Perspective view of an artificial patient replica device in use.
Desired Partnerships:
- Sponsored Research
- Co-Development