Deans' stroke musings: UK - New move to use robots for stroke rehabilitation

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

UK - New move to use robots for stroke rehabilitation

At least they are trying to develop something for chronic therapy(past 6 months).
http://www.healthcanal.com/surgery-rehabilitation/24436-New-move-use-robots-for-stroke-rehabilitation.html

Robots will be used to help people recover from strokes as part of a three year research project by the University of Sheffield, in partnership with experts from across Europe.

The new FP7 European project, entitled Supervised Care and Rehabilitation Involving Personal Tele-robotics (SCRIPT), will involve the development of the hand and wrist. The treatment will be delivered during the chronic phases of stroke rehabilitation.

The researchers aim to establish a tele-robotic communication platform which patients can use in their own homes and which can be managed remotely, therefore reducing the number of hospital visits needed. In addition, the SCRIPT project will focus on adapting a robot´s interaction capabilities to those required for a therapeutic interaction. This would allow for a more natural interaction.

Professor Gail Mountain, Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Sheffield´s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) is one of the SCRIPT´s Principal Investigators.

Professor Mountain said: "The Sheffield contribution to the SCRIPT project will be located in the skills and knowledge that we have gained through leading and being involved in previous interdisciplinary technology development projects for people with stroke."

"Through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded SMART Consortium we have designed and tested technologies for stroke rehabilitation and self management, combining user centred design and health services research methods. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to apply and further develop this work in SCRIPT which we hope will improve access to rehabilitation and ultimately quality of life for people who have had a stroke".

Dr Farshid Amirabdollahian, from the School of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire, is also part of the research team.

Dr Amirabdollahian added: "The projects focus on hand and wrist exercise presents the least researched area in this field and has the potential to make a big contribution to personal independence. Our developed prototypes will be available for home use and in a motivating and engaging context, which should provide easier and more frequently available tools, which should in turn affect the patient recovery".

Notes for Editors: Other project partners are: R.U. Robots Limited (RUR), University of Hertfordshire, Universiteit Twente, Roessingh Research and Development BV (RRD), MOOG BV, San Raffaele S.p.A. and User Interface Design GMBH.

This project is partially funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme.

For further information please contact: Amy Pullan, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2229859