Practical aspects of the application of the remote physical rehabilitation support system under audiovisual self-control
Authors: Ashapkina M.S. , Alpatov A.V. 
Published: October 2024

The problem of developing a system for monitoring the health state of people with chronic non-communicable disease (CNCD) is considered. To improve the effectiveness of medical care for such patients, it is proposed to use long-term remote monitoring of their health outside the medical institution and, based on the analysis of personalized patterns of dynamics of diagnostically significant indicators for the state of remission and exacerbation of the disease, to ensure the possibility of detecting its exacerbation at an early stage of development. Diseases of the musculoskeletal system remain a serious problem for modern man. A long-term physical rehabilitation is required for the treatment of such condition. At the outpatient stage, it is carried out by the patient himself. The patient doesn’t have the possibility of qualified control over the correctness of performing rehabilitation exercises at home. The remote monitoring system will allow to assess the patient's condition during the outpatient period objectively. However, existing technical solutions are difficult to use for an ordinary user. Therefore, a convenient system is needed that could increase the availability of medical services without the use of additional equipment. The presence of a motion sensor system in a smartphone increases the possibility of using this technical tool to monitor motor activity in everyday life. Purpose of the present paper: to assess the effectiveness of a remote physical rehabilitation sup-port system through its implementation in a medical institution involving patients who have under-gone a rehabilitation course during their inpatient period, including the performance of a specific set of rehabilitation exercises, and to explore the participants' experiences using a mobile application and remote physical rehabilitation support system. During the development on the NEFITNESS project, the team developed and successfully implemented in clinical practice a system for remote physical rehabilitation support under audio-visual self-control. The support system, based on an inertial sensor, a mobile application, and an online platform, led to a 11% increase in muscle endurance over six months of regular sessions compared to standard rehabilitation techniques. The following objectives were achieved: a) experience with the mobile application and physical rehabilitation support system was studied; b) quantitative characteristics of rehabilitation trajectory success were obtained through exercise performance feedback; c) participant engagement in the topic of remote rehabilitation support increased; d) accessibility of rehabilitation technologies for a wide range of users improved. The practical possibility of using a remote rehabilitation and motor activity recovery system under audiovisual self- control is presented, where a smartphone served as a feed-back tool based on an integrated motion sensor to ensure the correct execution of rehabilitation exercises. Within the framework of joint scientific research carried out at the Research Institute of Emergency Pediatric Surgery and Traumatology under the project "Development of a complex of remote physical rehabilitation of children", the remote physical rehabilitation system and mobile application "NEFITNESS" were tested. The developed system resulted in increased muscle endurance over six months of regular sessions can be scaled and applied to address various tasks related to the digital representation of restorative exercises for other segments of the musculoskeletal system.