Xbox Kinect technology to help stroke victims
pharmafile | June 19, 2012 | News story | Medical Communications | Gamification, Roke, Southampton, Xbox, stroke
The University of Southampton and Roke Manor Research have pioneered the use of Microsoft’s Xbox technology to help stroke patients recover at home.
The University of Southampton is using the Xbox Kinect to create an algorithm that tracks and measures hand joint angles and the fine dexterity of individual finger movements.
The aim is to capture the data while the patients follow exercises on a TV screen.
Roke, an engineering R&D firm, is providing technical assistance to the University, and already has expertise in developing e-health solutions.
The project is looking to help people recovering from a stroke to do more regular and precise exercises so that they recover faster.
The data collected will be fed back to the therapists caring for the patient so they can continually monitor progress, reducing the need for frequent hospital visits.
This new system has been developed to complement the home-based physiotherapy care already offered to patients in the UK.
This follows a recent Stroke Association report that found stroke survivors are being denied the chance to make their best recovery because of a lack of post-hospital care.
Simon Wickes, healthcare business sector manager at Roke, said: “Strokes are the largest single cause of severe disability in the UK and it is estimated that every year half of the hundred-thousand stroke patients experience upper limb problems.
“As Roke has a presence in mobile and e-health devices, we were able to provide the technical guidance and support to help the students realise this exciting and valuable project.”
Saving money
Wickes added that this was a cost effective project as it reduces hospital visits – a major cost to the NHS – and can also reduce patient recovery times.
The UK currently spends around £2.5 billion on the care and rehabilitation of stroke patients. Projects such as this could be attractive to the NHS as it is looking to save around £15 billion from across the service by 2015.
The Southampton and Roke team’s next objective is to create a series of computer games to make the rehabilitation process more interesting for the patient.
The games will adapt to each individual’s ability and help motivate them to reach rehabilitation goals by feeding back higher scores if their joint movements improve.
Comment
This is gamification in the real world and goes beyond healthy living apps or games built to deliver marketing messages like Boehringer’s Syrum.
By helping a particular group and having measurable outcomes, this type of initiative presents a welcome take on gamification, making it less of a gimmick.
It remains to be seen if the project can be cost effective for the NHS and help reduce the £2.5 billion health bill – all projects like this make this claim – but stroke victims and their carers sorely need all the post-hospital care they can get.
Ben Adams is the reporter for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and author of the DigiBlog site. He can be contacted via: email or Twitter.
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