HMI Technology, Healthcare Robotics Help Stroke Patient Recovery

By Fred Donovan

July 01, 2019 - Human-machine interface (HMI) technology, healthcare robotics, and brain stimulation are being used by Swiss researchers to help rehabilitate stroke patients.

When used together and personalized for the individual patient, these technologies can improve severe chronic stroke recovery, according to a paper recently published in the journal Brain.

The researchers noted that the most common result of a stroke is impaired upper arm function, which affects daily tasks and quality of life. Rehabilitation therapies generally have the best effect in the first three months after a stroke. After this time, patients are considered chronic and the likelihood of further natural recovery is limited.

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The researchers come from the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, the University of Geneva Faculty of Medicine, and the Clinique Romande de Readaptation.

"Our findings show that neurotechnology-aided upper limb rehabilitation is promising for severe chronic stroke patients,” said Martina Coscia, staff engineer at the Wyss Center and lead author of the paper.

“However, we also found that the 'one size fits all' approach doesn't lead to the best outcome. We suggest a move towards a personalized combination of neurotechnology-based stroke rehabilitation therapies, ideally in a home-based environment where prolonged therapy is more feasible than in a clinic. We believe that by sequentially introducing stroke therapies according to individual progress, we could allow patients to continue their recovery beyond what is possible today," Coscia added.

The authors compared data from 64 clinical studies on upper limb neurotechnology-aided treatments in chronic stroke patients. The technologies analyzed in the paper included robotics, functional electrical stimulation of muscles, brain stimulation, and HMI technology.

Friedhelm Hummel, Defitech Chair of the Clinical Neuroengineering Center for Neuroprosthetics at EPFL and professor at the University of Geneva Medical School, added: "What we would like to see in the future are long-term trials in which multiple neurotechnology-based therapies are used within the same patient. We believe that this synergistic approach could uncover previously undiscovered treatment pathways for chronic stroke patients."

The research team has begun a clinical trial using a personalized therapy approach with HMI technology, robotics, functional electrical stimulation, and brain stimulation to maximize treatment effects in each patient. The goal is to improve stroke recovery by using new personalized, neurotechnology-based therapies in combination.

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HMI Technology, Healthcare Robotics Help Stroke Patient Recovery

Human-machine interface technology, healthcare robotics, and brain stimulation are being used by Swiss researchers to help rehabilitate stroke patients.

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