Clinical evaluation of a patient participation assessment system for upper extremity rehabilitation exercises


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Ödemiş E., Baysal C. V.

Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, vol.63, no.1, pp.1-17, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)

Abstract

tional
output to be received from therapy. In rehabilitation exercises performed with robotic devices, the difficulty levels of
therapy tasks and the device assistance are adjusted based on the patient’s therapy performance to improve active participation.
However, the existing therapy performance evaluation methods are based on either some specific device designs or
certain therapy tasks, which limits their widespread use. In this paper, the effectiveness of a participation assessment system,
which can evaluate patients’ therapy performance, tiredness, and slacking independent of any device design and therapy
exercise, was clinically tested on ten patients diagnosed with frozen shoulder syndrome. The patients performed exercises
using the system once a week throughout their 4-week treatment period. Multiple clinical measurements and scales were
employed during the clinical study to assess patients’ progress and status, such as tiredness throughout the therapy process.
The clinical data, along with the patient findings obtained from the participation assessment system, were statistically analyzed
and compared. The findings revealed that the patients’ improvements and progress during the therapy process clinically
coincide with the variations in the performance evaluation results of the system, and the implemented method successfully
assesses the patients’ participation during the rehabilitation exercises.