Monitoring daily activities of people suffering from stroke presents a challenge to doctors. However, a research team at the University of Twente in the Netherlands is studying a wearable tracker kit that keeps a close watch on their daily activities as they recover. It accurately monitors and analyzes the patient's activity and adds the infrastructure to transfer, store and process all the data collected. This technique is very likely to improve the rehabilitation process and reduce medical costs.

In the Netherlands, about 45,000 people suffer from stroke each year. In 2010, up to 33 million people worldwide suffered a stroke. As the population ages, these numbers are expected to increase further in the coming years. The biggest problem with stroke patients is that they often have to cope with various physical limitations and have to participate in rehabilitation programs to improve their daily physical activity flexibility.

41 sensors, the world's first time

In the context of the European FP7 research project, PhD student Bart Klaasen worked with a team of international healthcare professionals and engineers to develop an embedded INTERACTION suite for people who have recovered from stroke in order to track them out of the clinic The progress of activities. With 41 sensors in the kit, including a sensor to measure muscle strength, a back sensor to the back and hands, and a pressure sensor in the sole, this suit is designed to be worn for three months to track the wearer's power, flexibility and pace state.

"Stroke patients often have to cope with the physical limitations caused by illness, and they usually take part in rehabilitation programs to act as effectively as possible in their daily lives," Klaasen said in a statement. However, the current rehabilitation mainly occurs in rehab clinics, and it is not enough for our patients to understand how to deal with their physiological limitations in their daily life after the completion of the rehabilitation program. Understanding these people's daily life is conducive to the development of the post- Plan to achieve more effective rehabilitation at a lower cost. "

The suit was also equipped with a portable launcher to wirelessly send data to the University of Twente server, and for the data processing part, the team successfully modeled all the related motions and cleaned up by filtering out the rest Data related to a therapist. As the project progresses, the plan is to transmit the data directly to the patient's medical team, even for clinical use.

Data transfer is smooth and activity at home can be monitored

"There has been a long felt need for such a system, but the technology is not yet ready," says Klaassen, "making this system a reality due to the rapid advances in battery technology, wearable devices for smart textiles and big data analytics." The system has proven to work well in his doctoral studies. However, this set of wearable suits is still only used for research, I do not know when the actual clinical use.

In developing this system, Bart Klaassen and his team used a user-centered approach to design. This enables them to continually incorporate patient feedback into the development of the system. Other stakeholders, such as insurance companies and healthcare professionals, are also involved in early design and research efforts.

"We have been able to prove that all the information transfer process is very successful, the process is very efficient," Klaassen said. "Our project provides new technologies and methods that can be used to monitor patients at home for long periods of time and to identify any differences from structured clinical measurements.We are currently conducting further studies to finalize whether these approaches are an ideal indicator of surveillance Way to recover. "