Barcelona Digital, a technology center specializing in ICT-related R&D&i and member of TECNIO, has started up a European R&D project that will allow patients to do physical therapy through virtual reality, monitored remotely by healthcare professionals. 

With the aim of providing necessary medical assistance for patients with chronic illnesses, the elderly and the disabled, the FitRehab R&D project will develop a platform through which participants can carry out exercise routines that are planned and supervised remotely by an expert.

The platform will have two integrated workstations. The first will be used in hospitals by healthcare professionals to create personalized exercise programs for each patient. The second will be used by patients in their home to carry out the exercise routine established by their doctor with a virtual trainer. The patient will be monitored using sensors on a shirt, which will be developed by the project’s technology partners and provided to healthcare centers, and will be represented on the platform by an avatar that will reproduce their movements in virtual reality.

In addition to the motion sensors, the patient’s shirt will also have biological sensors to control their physiological variables, like heart rate, temperature and breathing. The information collected will be sent to the hospital, where medical personnel will control the data and modify the program if necessary. Thus, the patient’s state is always under control and watched by healthcare professionals, improving their quality of life and reducing the chances of relapse.
 
The project has a total budget of more than 460,000 €, provided in part by the European Union through the Innovation for Welfare program, and is coordinated by the University of Milan (Italy). Other participants include Barcelona Digital and CETEMMSA, from Catalonia, Stichting De Wever (Netherlands), Viljandi Hospital Foundation (Estonia), Azienda Sanitaria Locale de la Provincia de Brescia (Italy), Ab.Acus (Italy), and the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences (Austria).