Telerehabilitation systems can be a new approach to support the therapy of patients with functional and mental disabilities. Austrian legislative efforts are supporting telemedicine offers that might pose a cost relief in comparison to the classic array of treatments.
After our literature research we found out that telemedicine offers several different ways of rehabilitation services. These systems are hard to evaluate due to their variety of key features and components.
The possibility of evaluation and comparison is the basis for cost bearers to adopt and provide a product instead of an already existing one. The benefit and feasibility must be evident and measurable for all participants within the rehabilitation environment. Only this can make development in telerehabilitation sustainably successful.
In this project we want to identify comparable key features of telerehabilitation systems in terms of hardware, software, therapy methods and interaction with patients. We will test an already developed telerehabilitation system created at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten called UMBRELLO.
Visit the UMBRELLO project:
https://research.fhstp.ac.at/projekte/umbrello-sondierung-einer-testregion
At the end of our project we want to create new use-cases for the UMBRELLO platform. These use-cases will be evaluated.
In the following video you can see an example scenario of using UMBRELLO for teletherapy.
We tested this example scenario with the UMBRELLO system ourselves. The results of our evaluation for using the UMBRELLO system for occupational therapy are:
- A stable and fast Internet connection is needed for teletherapy
- Consideration of environmental influences (lighting, noise, room situation)
- Limited possibilities for exercises
Therefore, we concluded, that the UMBRELLO system needs further improvements in terms of hardware and functionality to be used as a telerehabilitation tool for occupational therapy.
A project at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences
Master Program Digital Healthcare
Project Team: Almesberger Marcel BSc, Wiesinger Sarah BSc
Project Coach: FH-Prof. Romana Bichler MAS
