An Exploration of Motion Tracking and Gamification in Telerehabilitation for Stroke Survivors

Virtual rehabilitation for post-stroke patients have gained traction over the last few years, while motion tracking system has seen implementation through different rehabilitation centers and in a handful of medical environments, a completely home-based system has their own set of extra challenges. The core issue with any virtual system is that the patient might get demotivated and lack of human touch can make them depressed. While a motion-based system in the medical environments or the physiotherapy center can still be observed by a caregiver, a home-based system completely relies on the patient being motivated enough to carry out the session. In this paper, we explore currently available telerehabilitation systems and discover common issues faced within those systems. The reviewed technology in this paper showed a clear sign of iterative improvement but there are limitations observed in patient-therapist communication and implementation of gamification to keep the stroke-patients motivated. The goal of this study is to introduce the possibility of a telerehabilitation system that features a communication module and implements gamification ideas, all contained within a cloud-based solution which would allow real-time observation and communication between the therapists and the patients.