Brazilian researchers have developed a mobile app that helps in rehabilitation of people who have suffered stroke. From a sensor (accelerometer) that allows you to detect the tilt of the individual’s own telephone set to the individual’s clothes, the program allows you to identify posture and warn the user how to improve body alignment, either by voice, vibration or image.
The device acts on the rehabilitation of a problem known as hemiparesis, one of the most challenging sequelae of stroke and can also arise due to brain injuries caused by diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and some types of. In these cases, there is loss of muscle strength or partial paralysis on one side of the body, as well as losses in body awareness.
“The person with hemiparesis loses sensitivity and the perception of space organization. With this, she falls to one side, for example, and does not realize that this happened, even presenting muscle aches due to the poor position. It also turns out that without the correct posture, she can’t perform everyday tasks such as walking, cooking, driving or climbing a stairs, for example. Thus, both body awareness and trunk control, lost with stroke, need to be relearned to ensure the functionality of the upper limbs, ”explains Amanda Polin Pereira, a professor at the Department of Occupational Therapy at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and the first author of the article. in the magazine Jmar aging.
The development of the software, conceived from a need observed by Pereira, occurred during the doctorate of Olibário José Machado Neto, FAPESP scholarship at the Institute of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at the University of São Paulo (ICMC-USP). The research took place at the scope of two projects supported by the Foundation and had collaborators of the Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP).
“From the point of view of software development, it was a codesign work that actually united two distinct areas of knowledge to meet the needs of patients. This gave a lot of agility and basement for the development of the application, which is totally unique. There is nothing like the clinic that assists the treatment and rehabilitation of these patients, ”says Maria da Graça Campos Pimentel, professor at ICMC-USP and advisor of Machado Neto.
The tests were conducted in a rehabilitation center. Throughout the process, researchers have interviewed physiotherapists and occupational therapists to understand treatment needs. Rehabilitation patients were also consulted.
“In addition to generating a multitude of data so that it is possible to expand the understanding of hemiparesis, the application assists patients in postural improvement during these sessions and allows therapists to focus on other rehabilitation issues, making the process more efficient and accurate. We are also starting a study for the most prolonged use of the app at home, ”says Pereira.
Less is more
Throughout the project three versions of the app were developed. “We started with the idea of a wearable application, but we noticed that the simpler it was, the better its acceptance among patients. Therefore, we focused on the development of the software and, instead of creating special clothing, we chose to sew tops or tank tops that could fix the mobile phone on the patient’s trunk, ”says Pimentel.
“Finally, we created an affordable wearable technology that takes advantage of low -cost smartphones and mobile phone accelerometers to continually monitor changes [da direita para a esquerda e para frente e para trás]exploring the feedbacks Visual, tactile and auditory of the device to guide patients standing, ”explains the researcher.
Photo: Amanda Pereira
According to Pimentel, the final purpose of the work is to make the application available free and leverage new studies from the data generated on hemiparesis. “What we need now is a collaboration to keep the application always up to date, something that requires working time and financial investment,” he says.
