Abstract
Stroke is among the top 10 leading causes of death and disability around the world. Patients who suffer from this disease usually perform physical exercises at home to improve their condition. These exercises are recommended by therapists based on the patient’s progress level, and may be remotely supervised by them if technology is an option for both. At this point, two major challenges must be faced. The first one is the lack of specialized medical staff to remotely handle the growing number of stroke patients. The second one is the difficulty of dynamically adapt the patient’s therapy plan in real time whilst they rehabilitate at home, since their evolution varies as the rehabilitation process progresses. In this context, we present a fuzzy system that is able to automatically adapt the rehabilitation plan of stroke patients. The use of fuzzy logic greatly facilitates the monitoring and guidance of stroke patients. Moreover, the system is capable of automatically generating modifications of existent exercises whilst considering their particularities at any given time. A preliminary experiment was conducted to show the advantages of the proposal, and the results suggest that the application of fuzzy logic may help make correct decisions based on the patient’s progress level.
Highlights
One in six people will suffer a stroke during their lifetime
The main goal of the experiment conducted was oriented towards demonstrating the utility of the proposed system. This is the first step before using the system for a clinical trial with patients, who have a suffered moderate or severe stroke, according to the levels measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scoring system
In order for a remote rehabilitation system to be used continuously and effectively by stroke patients, three essential characteristics must be provided: (i) usability, to remove the barrier that the use of technology may represent, and adequately guide the user in the process of autonomous rehabilitation; (ii) motivation, to encourage the continued use of the system and reduce the possibility of abandonment by the patient; and (iii) autonomy, to be able to automatically recognize and evaluate the rehabilitation exercises performed by the patient without the need for continuous supervision and presence of the therapist
Summary
One in six people will suffer a stroke during their lifetime. Globally, stroke causes more than 6 million deaths each year, according to statistics provided by the World HealthOrganization [1]. Stroke causes more than 6 million deaths each year, according to statistics provided by the World Health. Current predictions for the coming years are, negative, due to factors such as the incidence of stroke in middle-income countries [2]. Of strokes globally occur in low- and middle-income countries. This figure has doubled in recent decades, while in high-income countries, it has fallen by 42% [1]. The impact of this unresolved clinical challenge on health systems is enormous, due to issues such as the continuous need for physical rehabilitation and face-to-face supervision by qualified medical staff. Stroke often affects people who are at the productive peak of their working careers, which can have an impact on a country’s socioeconomic development [3]
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