Using digital technology in rehabilitation and home settings

The Digital Technology Rehabilitation Research Group’s leads, Dr Button & Dr Al-Amri from the School of Healthcare Sciences, were interviewed by ITV Wales to discuss their pioneering approach of using technology in understanding patient movement strategies.

Their idea is to find innovative solutions to delivering even better quality of healthcare and outcomes for patients with knee pain.  One approach is the use of virtual reality, which makes it possible to assess patients in an interactive safe environment which can be changed in a dynamic fashion to gather insight on human movement during unexpected movement, as observed on the sport field.

Alongside this the research team have been studying the use of wearable sensor based technology that is affordable and can be used in the clinic.  This is to help patients and physiotherapists have a better understanding of the day to day movement restrictions individuals experience due to their pain.

This innovative way of working can be used to help plan personalised physiotherapy treatment programs that patients can interact with at home and increase patient confidence to engage with treatment.