Improved home rehabilitation for stroke patients

Robotdalen has, along with several strong partners, received funding from the Swedish innovation agency VINNOVA for the project “Interactive remote solutions for implementation and monitoring of stroke rehabilitation in the home environment”. With modern communication technology, patients will get better support during rehabilitation, without having to go to a hospital or other medical facility on every single occasion. VINNOVA believes the project has strong potential for new innovative solutions for improved care.

- The solutions will give stroke patients more opportunities for supervised training, in between their regular training with staff at home visits or at the hospital, says Maria Ehn, Project Manager from Robotdalen. This will help patients restore lost functions and provide increased mobility and quality of life.

30,000 strokes annually

Every year around 30,000 people in Sweden suffer from a stroke. They need long-term rehabilitation to improve and maintain function, independence, and quality of life. Modern sensor- and communication technology can make a difference. The project will develop solutions where the patient and staff physically can interact and see each other, for example through regular TV-sets. Health professionals can demonstrate exercises and then provide immediate feedback when patients perform the exercises in real time.

- We want to see how the use of remote technology can improve stroke patients' rehabilitation, said Maria Ehn. Solutions that work for stroke patients may also have high relevance for other groups with brain injuries or diseases or for patients with other diseases who need a longer period with individual training.

The project has a budget of 7.2 MSEK where VINNOVA contributes with 3.6 MSEK and the remaining funding comes from the participating project partners: the City of Västerås, Västmanland County Council, the County Administrative Board of Västmanland, Örebro Municipality, Örebro County Council, Danderyd Hospital / Karolinska Institute, Danderyd Geriatrics Clinic/Karolinska Institute, Microsoft AB, the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) and Robotdalen.