Combining soft robotics and telerehabilitation for improving motor function after stroke

• Published in: Wearable technologies Vol. 5; p. e1
• Main Authors: Proietti, Tommaso, Nuckols, Kristin, Grupper, Jesse, Schwerz de Lucena, Diogo, Inirio, Bianca, Porazinski, Kelley, Wagner, Diana, Cole, Tazzy, Glover, Christina, Mendelowitz, Sarah, Herman, Maxwell, Breen, Joan, Lin, David, Walsh, Conor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Cambridge University Press 2024
• Subjects: Clinical outcomes; Gloves; Motor ability; Occupational therapy; Pilot projects; Rehabilitation; Robotics; Robots; Soft robotics; Software; Stroke; stroke rehabilitation; Telemedicine; telerehabilitation; Therapy; Usability; wearable robotics; stroke rehabilitation; soft robotics; wearable robotics; telerehabilitation
• ISSN: 2631-7176; 2631-7176
• DOI: 10.1017/wtc.2023.26

Telerehabilitation and robotics, either traditional rigid or soft, have been extensively studied and used to improve hand functionality after a stroke. However, a limited number of devices combined these two technologies to such a level of maturity that was possible to use them at the patients' home, unsupervised. Here we present a novel investigation that demonstrates the feasibility of a system that integrates a soft inflatable robotic glove, a cloud-connected software interface, and a telerehabilitation therapy. Ten chronic moderate-to-severe stroke survivors independently used the system at their home for 4 weeks, following a software-led therapy and being in touch with occupational therapists. Data from the therapy, including automatic assessments by the robot, were available to the occupational therapists in real-time, thanks to the cloud-connected capability of the system. The participants used the system intensively (about five times more movements per session than the standard care) for a total of more than 8 hr of therapy on average. We were able to observe improvements in standard clinical metrics (FMA +3.9 ± 4.0,  < .05, COPM-P + 2.5 ± 1.3,  < .05, COPM-S + 2.6 ± 1.9,  < .05, MAL-AOU +6.6 ± 6.5,  < .05) and range of motion (+88%) at the end of the intervention. Despite being small, these improvements sustained at follow-up, 2 weeks after the end of the therapy. These promising results pave the way toward further investigation for the deployment of combined soft robotic/telerehabilitive systems at-home for autonomous usage for stroke rehabilitation.