Robotic Rehabilitation in India: A Survey of Attitudes and Perceptions

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Robotic rehabilitation is a recent advancement in the field of neurorehabilitation that can benefit patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries, strokes and spinal cord injuries. Despite its availability in India since more than a decade, the number of people who are availing such benefits are a minority of the patient population. Materials and Methods: The aim of the study was to understand the trends and perceptions of people from medical and non-medical professions. The objective of the study was to evaluate the awareness levels and general perceptions about robotics in rehabilitation, across people from healthcare and other fields including rehabilitation physicians from various parts of the country, through an open survey and using an 11-point scoring system for objective evaluation. The research work was conducted as an observational survey-based study. Questions related to awareness levels, self-perceived levels of affordability and effectiveness of robotics in the field of rehabilitation were covered through a questionnaire made by the author, completely masking the personal information of the respondents to ensure anonymity. Results: A total of 145 people from different parts of the country belonging to both healthcare and other fields responded. Scores were assessed out of 10, in all domains. The results show a significant number of people being completely unaware of robotics in the field of rehabilitation, with a low average awareness score of 3.4 out of 10. This trend was also seen amongst medical professionals. Although the reported levels of affordability were low at 3.6, the average scores of perceived effectiveness were high at 5.9. Most people believed financial limitations and lack of awareness and availability as common barriers of implementation of robotic rehabilitation in a country like India. Conclusion: This study shows that despite the availability of advanced resources in major cities in the country, there is a lack of awareness amongst doctors and members from other fields, which may result in potential benefiters not being able to make informed decisions about rehabilitative options. Although doctors of the field of rehabilitation generally had a more positive response, the rest of the members are largely unaware. Improving the availability and accessibility to such advances will help provide equal opportunity of access to clients who could benefit from the same. Upscaling the manufacturing and development of indigenous robots for rehabilitation, amongst other methods may help reduce the expenses on users, thereby improving logistic and financial accessibility and availability.