Specialists of Branch No.3 of the Moscow Scientific and Practical Centre for Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine started to use VR technology in post-stroke rehabilitation, Moscow Mayor official website reports.
The system continuously monitors a patient’s physiological parameters and helps to restore the ability to control body movements in real-time mode. The program has a game controller module.
“VR technology is used as part of post-stroke rehabilitation to restore, fully or partially, patients’ movements, balance and coordination functions, dexterity in the limbs affected, as well as self-help skills. The new technique makes the training more efficient due to the feedback sensor communication and case-by-case approach. Each patient has his or her own virtual space modelled according to his or her mobility, with the exercise conducted in an environment close to real life conditions,” said Irena Pogonchenkova, chief medical rehabilitation and health resort treatment specialist in Moscow, Director of the Moscow Scientific and Practical Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine.
During rehabilitation, a patient is placed in a virtual environment that is a coast with a dolphin. Each patient does specially selected exercises aimed at overcoming motor and cognitive deficits. A doctor chooses one of the three levels of difficulty, focusing on the affected side of the body.
The program assesses rehabilitation’s efficiency and progress, as the system records the position of the maximum limb movement before and after training, as well as movement’s correctness. If the exercises are done successfully, a patient gets points, the so called ‘health points’. According to the observations of experts, virtual reality used in post-stroke rehabilitation stimulates patients to continue the treatment.