Quantification of Physical Therapy Activities for Rehabilitation after Neurological Injury

Project Description:
Rehabilitation after neurological injury often requires significant physical therapy to improve the patient’s quality of life and activities of daily living. Typically, physical therapists begin with the most basic tasks and movements, such as safely moving from a bed to a chair while protecting your impaired arms from injury. Then, they gradually progress to exercises and tasks that improve balance, help patients relearn basic coordination skills, and retrain your brain to perform functional tasks such as grasping objects and walking.

One issue that commonly arises in rehabilitation settings is the inability to quantify physical therapy exercises so that physicians can assess a patient’s recovery over time. The aim of this project is to apply sensing based technologies to common physical therapy devices, such as a stretch bands, balance boards, and stacking cones to quantify their use during physical therapy in a sub-acute rehabilitation setting.

Project Mentor:
Engineering Mentor Christine King, Dept. Biomedical Engineering, UCI, kingce@uci.edu
Physician Mentor: Steve Small, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology, UCI, small@uci.edu
Offsite Physician Mentor: Glen Seliger, Dept. Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation, Helen Hayes Hospital, NY
Offsite Physician Mentor: Victoria Lent, MD, Department of Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation, Helen Hayes Hospital, NY

Team Members:

Ariana Dana Cano, Andrew William Duncan, Nichole Esteffanie Iaquinta, Sierra Dawn Mazzarini, Anna Smirnova