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Essential Research
Innovative rehabilitation
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nnovation at the service of rehabilitation. For several years now, the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI) has been developing a platform for stroke victims or people with motor and cognitive impairments. The NeuroRehabLab combines technology and innovation with healthcare. Sergi Bermudez, professor at the University of Madeira, is one of the project leaders and he says that the big challenge for the lab is to know how it is possible to employ new technologies in an intelligent manner in order to improve approaches and clinical practices for those who are afflicted by this kind of pathology. One of the solutions that were found lies in videogames. The NeuroRehabLab has been creating apps for people with motor and cognitive impairments.
For instance, navigating in a town called 'Rehab City', fulfilling several tasks like going to the pharmacy, a cash point or the supermarket. At the latter, the patient can select several products, cancel his order and even compare prices. The goal is to simulate the several challenges that the user will face in his daily life. And, of course, help them to recover and giving them their independence. With the same goal but a different methodology, patients are challenged to guide a canoe through a virtual river. This simulation helps to restore the neural pathways of patients. In this case, patients need only select the direction of the virtual oars. As well as health benefits, the socioeconomic impact of these systems has also been significant. Not only do they enable new solutions in the eHealth area, these programmes www.essential-madeira.com 28
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novação em serviços de reabilitação. Há vários anos que o Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI) desenvolveu uma plataforma para ajudar vítimas de acidente vascular cerebral (AVC), ou com dificuldades motoras e cognitivas. O NeuroRehabLab tem aliado a tecnologia e a inovação aos cuidados de saúde. Sergi Bermudez, professor na Universidade da Madeira e um dos responsáveis pelo projeto, afirma que o grande desafio do laboratório é saber de que modo é possível utilizar as novas tecnologias, de uma maneira inteligente, para melhorar as abordagens e as práticas clínicas para quem é afetado por estes tipos de patologias. Uma das soluções encontradas surgiu nos videojogos. O NeuroRehabLab tem criado aplicações para pessoas com dificuldades motoras e cognitivas.
