Abstract
The increased use of sensor technology has been crucial in releasing the potential for remote rehabilitation. However, it is vital that human factors, that have potential to affect real-world use, are fully considered before sensors are adopted into remote rehabilitation practice. The smart sensor devices for rehabilitation and connected health (SENDoc) project assesses the human factors associated with sensors for remote rehabilitation of elders in the Northern Periphery of Europe. This article conducts a literature review of human factors and puts forward an objective scoring system to evaluate the feasibility of balance assessment technology for adaption into remote rehabilitation settings. The main factors that must be considered are: Deployment constraints, usability, comfort and accuracy. This article shows that improving accuracy, reliability and validity is the main goal of research focusing on developing novel balance assessment technology. However, other aspects of usability related to human factors such as practicality, comfort and ease of use need further consideration by researchers to help advance the technology to a state where it can be applied in remote rehabilitation settings.
Highlights
Health care services are facing demands relating to an increased number of elderly people becoming physically inactive [1]
Information on the sensors or technology used for the balance assessment and how this is deployed is provided: Whether it is worn on the participant or the technology is installed in the environment
A review was conducted on the state of the art related to technology enabled balance assessment methods and their potential to be utilised in remote rehabilitation settings
Summary
Health care services are facing demands relating to an increased number of elderly people becoming physically inactive [1]. They are having to deal with frailty, diabetes, neurodegenerative or cardiovascular diseases, and injuries linked to falling that result in cognitive, physical and psychological consequences, such as dementia, lack of independence and isolation. Remote rehabilitation presents a potential solution to deal with the increased health care service demands in relation to a growing elderly population [2]. Remote rehabilitation has the potential to enhance the quality of service, decrease costs and reduce the demand for resources such as nurses, health practitioners, specialists, rooms and beds. Technologies used for remote rehabilitation provide easier access to vital health care services such as physiotherapy. For example: In 2012/2013, the average cost of treating a hip fracture in the first year was about £14,264 in the UK and the cost in Western Europe was about 14,429 euro [5]
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