The Need: Understanding the Pain

When a child is diagnosed with a serious, rare musculoskeletal disorder, it’s a reality that can be hard to fathom for the child, the parents, and even the healthcare providers. The pain, disability, and the need for constant healthcare activities disrupt the child’s normal life, making simple activities like going to school or pursuing hobbies a struggle.

Musculoskeletal disorders among children and young people (CYP) have risen by 20% from 2007 to 2017. Despite this, research concerning musculoskeletal pain in children and adolescents is scarce. A high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain of around 33% in young people aged 12-19 years has been reported in Norway.

The question then arises: How can we manage the pain, motivate children and their families to stick to daily physiotherapy activities, and support them through the uncertainty and anxiety caused by the condition?

Aims of the Project

The CYPHomeTherapy project aims to address these needs by focusing on two patient groups: children and adolescents with Multiple osteochondromas (MO) and Olliers disease. The goal is to co-create new digital home therapy interventions for these young patients and their parents, identify motivational factors affecting treatment adherence, and improve national-level treatment guidelines.

The project will result in two new pre-validated digital service innovations, identification of motivation and pain management factors for children’s home therapy, and a better understanding of novel treatment practices.

The Knowledge Need: Addressing R&D Challenges

Building a digital home therapy solution presents challenges. It’s hard to determine what features of the interventions should be developed to achieve more successful patient outcomes. The purpose of this health pilot project is to co-create new digital home therapy innovations for children and their parents.

Key areas of knowledge to be addressed include: understanding user journeys and needs, identifying motivation factors for digital home therapy, co-creating meaningful and motivating services, and supporting children and their families with pain management at home.

User Involvement: A Coordinated Innovation Process

The project will involve a coordinated innovation process between researchers, healthcare professionals, patients, parents, and the business sector. The main objective is to work with these stakeholders to co-create and test the feasibility of the first innovation prototypes of a novel personalized digital home therapy interventions for young patients with serious musculoskeletal disorders.

Impact: Value Creation Potential and Benefits

The long-term goal of the project is to result in a more efficient and motivating treatment that assures adherence to the patient-specific treatment goals. This could help these children to complete school, enter and stay in working life with reduced pain and thus pain-related sick leaves and pain-related complications.

The commercialization potential is high, with the global pediatric home healthcare market size expected to reach $59.2 billion by 2027. The project team aims to bring these innovations to the market, addressing a clear need in the healthcare sector.

The CYP MOOD HomeTherapy project is a step towards a future where children with musculoskeletal disorders can receive effective, personalized treatment that allows them to lead fulfilling lives. By focusing on the creation of digital home therapy solutions, this project aims to address the physical and psychological challenges these children face, offering hope for a brighter future.

Interested? Take contact with nenad.pavel@oslomet.no

AI and VR in Stroke Rehabilitation: A Novel Approach

In 2017, stroke accounted for 438,000 deaths across Europe, representing 8% of total deaths. Despite the increasing numbers of stroke cases, the potential use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), mobile technologies, and gamification in stroke risk evaluation and rehabilitation remains largely underexplored. This blog post delves into how AI-powered Virtual Reality (VR) solutions can revolutionize stroke rehabilitation, particularly in home environments.

The Promise of AI and VR in Stroke Rehabilitation

AI-powered VR solutions can support personalization and self-management in stroke rehabilitation scenarios that require long-term supervision, care, and special training. These solutions are particularly useful in cases that require efficient communication and decision-making between patients and expert teams, such as physiotherapists, psychologists, doctors, nurses, and others involved in stroke care.

Newer digital technologies like sensors, medical devices, data transferring technologies, mobile communication technologies, AI/machine learning, and VR technologies, coupled with gamification, open new opportunities for self-care, patient empowerment, real-time data utilization, and remote connections along the care journey.

Stroke Home Rehabilitation & Self Management

Recent research reveals that self-management interventions, specifically those that support the physical rehabilitation of stroke patients, significantly improve health outcomes for stroke survivors compared to standard care. However, there is currently a lack of research about interventions targeting stroke patient self-management. This underscores the need for personalized, self-management, and gamification-based digital stroke home rehabilitation solutions that can help patients return to their normal life rapidly.

Stroke Home Rehabilitation and VR Technologies

Emerging technologies like VR are promising due to their applicability in healthcare to improve current clinical practices. VR’s effects on stroke rehabilitation have been identified in multiple dimensions of functional recovery, including balance, gait, mobility, upper extremity function, cognitive ability, activities of daily life function, and participation.

However, most VR utility is currently through in-person supervision and instruction of therapists at hospitals or clinics. There is a need for more research on combining physical and mental therapy perspectives and whether VR changes are sustained in the long term.

AI Technologies in Stroke Home Rehabilitation

AI is a technology that may be used to provide VR system automatic adaptation, with minimal clinician input. AI increases the speed of adaptation of therapeutic games and has been used in stroke rehabilitation to increase patients’ interest and motivation during rehabilitation training. However, it is unclear how AI and particularly, deep learning models could be used as an integrated strategy to support real-world stroke rehabilitation exercises.

Research Questions and Objectives

The AI&VR-Stroke-Rehab project aims to use participatory design to co-create a novel AI-powered, VR-based home treatment solution for stroke patients’ group therapy, combining physical and mental therapy perspectives. The solution will be co-developed by the research team and the company Fornix from Norway.

The project’s research questions include:

• What are the specific needs of stroke patients and expert teams that could be addressed with AI-based avatars and VR empowered design?
• What are the specific design features and scenarios in the VR solution that is possible to build using AI, specifically AI-powered avatars, to support the stroke patient physiotherapy and improvemental health outcomes?
• What is the feasibility of the AI-powered AR solution and the identified features for stroke patients home rehabilitation?

The project’s approach and methodology include participatory co-design workshops and rapid prototyping. The project also considers innovation and sustainability aspects, and it aligns with the WHO’s new framework for long-term care provision. The AI&VR-Stroke-Rehab project represents a novel and promising approach to stroke rehabilitation. It leverages the power of AI and VR to create personalized, self-management, and gamification-based digital stroke home rehabilitation solutions. While further research is needed, the project provides a critical step forward in addressing the substantial burden of stroke and improving patient outcomes.

A Leap Forward in Scoliosis Treatment: A Digital Solution

Scoliosis, a condition where the spine rotates around its axis while simultaneously curving sideways, often in an S- or C-shape, is a prevalent issue. The most common form, Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS), typically develops between the ages of 10-15 and is more prevalent in girls. The primary treatments include braces for those still in their growth phase, and surgery for severe cases. For those who have completed their growth phase or adults with a less pronounced curve, treatment options are limited.

Patients with severe scoliosis may face challenges such as impaired lung function and mental health issues. Hence, regular exercise is often recommended. However, we at the Back Association have identified that there is a significant need for information and better follow-up, especially concerning scoliosis-specific training.

The Need for a Digital Solution

In an effort to fill this gap, we are eager to contribute to the development of a digital solution that can support scoliosis patients and their parents outside of the healthcare system. We have found that scoliosis patients and their families need better ways to:

1. Communicate with experts and among themselves,
2. Support and stay motivated to perform daily physiotherapy activities,
3. Cope with the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the disorder and associated pain.

Despite the clear need, there are currently no digital solutions available in Norway or globally that cater to these specific needs.

Our Proposal: A Comprehensive App

Our proposed solution is a comprehensive app that offers support, information, and motivation to scoliosis patients and their families. We are seeking funding to develop a robust prototype of this digital solution, which can be tested and implemented with minor changes.

Our app will aim to improve the treatment for scoliosis patients, facilitate better communication between healthcare personnel and patients, and offer much-needed support for patients’ relatives.

Overcoming Challenges

We understand the challenges that come with scoliosis— the difficulty in motivating children to exercise, the stigma and discomfort around brace use, and the anxiety in the waiting period before surgery. Our digital solution will provide clear and accessible information and guidelines on the patients’ terms.

Key Features of the App

Our digital solution will:

1. Increase health competence with short video clips, articles, and quizzes.
2. Encourage training with reliable exercise routines, video demonstrations, and progression tracking.
3. Provide an overview of progression about well-being and activities through a digital diary.
4. Offer resources in the health system and the Back Association such as contact with support groups with other patients and contact with their own doctor and psychologist.
5. Create social features where participants can exchange their experiences

In conclusion, the project is committed to improving the lives of scoliosis patients and their families. We believe that a digital solution can significantly enhance their treatment and coping strategies, and we are eager to make this vision a reality.