REWIRE Project Uses Virtual Reality to Improve Home-Based Rehabilitation

The REWIRE project was launched to develop and test a virtual reality-based platform that allows patients to continue their rehabilitation program at home once they leave the hospital.

REWIRE (short for Rehabilitative Wayout in Responsive home Environments) is a European project launched to develop, integrate and field test a new rehabilitation platform system that combines virtual reality technology with remotely monitored therapy programs. The REWIRE project is funded by the Seventh Framework Program, an EU program for the funding of research and technological development.

The REWIRE system is based on a multi-level rehabilitation platform and will allow patients to continue intensive rehabilitation at home once they have been discharged from a hospital. The patients will perform therapeutic exercises and be remotely monitored by their healthcare providers.

The REWIRE platform consists of three key components: Patient Station, Hospital Station and Networking Station. The Patient Station is used at the patient's home and guides the patient through a series of mini-games on the TV screen. The patient's avatar is displayed on the screen and the patient can see it interacting with various elements of the game. The station also offers exercise evaluation, a scoring system, and audio-visual feedback to keep the patient motivated. It uses video-based systems to track the patient's motion and adjust the level of challenge to the patient's abilities.

The Hospital Station is used by the clinical staff at hospitals to create a rehabilitation program with a personalised set of exercises. The station allows them to define and schedule the exercises, and also to monitor the patient's progress by analysing the motion data sent by the Patient Station. The Hospital Station is the central communication point for the other two stations and it primarily serves as a therapy management tool. It offers an analysis of the outcome of every rehabilitation session, making it easier for therapists and clinicians to assess the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process.

The Networking Station gathers rehabilitation data while the patient is both at the hospital and at home. The station will help healthcare providers discover trends and common features of different treatments among hospitals and on a regional level.

The REWIRE project aims to improve disease management, reduce the rate of hospitalization, and create a Personalised Health System that will enable effective rehabilitation and be deployed massively at patients' homes. The REWIRE platform will offer healthcare providers an opportunity to monitor the progress of stroke patients on a large scale and make it easier for them to anticipate trends and distribute resources more efficiently.

To learn more about the REWIRE project, watch the video.