ALICANTE, 13 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Human Robotics (HURO) research group at the University of Alicante (UA) leads a project to improve the rehabilitation of patients with neuromuscular disorders. Specifically, an international team is working on a personalized neuromechanical model for people with motor conditions in the hand after suffering a stroke or spinal cord injury.
The project they are working on is Myorehab (‘Monitoring and delivering personalized hand neurorehabilitation through virtual activities controlled by the neural drive’), as stated by the academic institution in a statement.
HURO researcher and project coordinator, Andrés Úbeda, has detailed that the objective of Myorehab is “to provide an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can monitor and offer a personalized hand rehabilitation intervention based on the amount of electrical activity generated by the muscles.
In a complementary way to conventional therapy, the project implements “cutting-edge technologies”, such as high-density electromyography, and gamified virtual activities to improve and monitor rehabilitation in a large number of patients.
With this new model, neuromechanical biomarkers associated with motor rehabilitation will be able to be extracted and the AI-based gamification intervention will be evaluated to offer rehabilitation “totally adapted to each patient.”
Rehabilitation treatments for neuromuscular disorders vary according to clinical centers and health systems, which is why “a standardized model is needed that can be replicated in any country,” Úbeda pointed out.
One of the main difficulties of treatment is being able to make a quantitative evaluation of how the patient improves. It is at this point where the Myorehab project will help both the rehabilitation professional and the patient to evaluate the complete process from the beginning of the sessions.
In a first phase, the technology and rehabilitation protocols will be applied and tested in healthy individuals and then a clinical evaluation will be carried out. In this second phase, the new model will be used to extract useful clinical metrics to readapt physical therapies in a “more efficient and effective” way.
“The goal of this project is to reach the clinical intervention phase where conventional therapy will be complemented with this novel technology to improve recovery by providing patients with more attractive and effective rehabilitation activities. In the case of Alicante, from the UA we will collaborate with patients affected by stroke at the Alicante General Hospital,” explained the researcher.
Lasting three years, until mid-2026, Myorehab brings together institutions from Spain, Germany, Brazil and Panama. This is a strong long-term research network between European and Latin American researchers to provide a transnational framework in the area of ??standardized motor rehabilitation.
In addition to the AU, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) in Germany, the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), both in Brazil, and the University of Technology of Panama (UTP) also participate. . . . .
The Myorehab project has funding of more than 485,000 euros financed through the 4th multi-thematic call for research and innovation projects 2022 of the EU-LAC Interest Group, made up of financing agencies from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. In the case of Spain, financing comes from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
The HURO research group of the UA, belonging to the Department of Physics, Systems Engineering and Signal Theory of the University of Alicante, was created in 2018 to respond to new challenges related to the world of robotics, a sector that requires robots capable of carrying out their tasks in dynamic and social environments.
Its members, with “great experience” in robotics and automated systems, work mainly in five lines of research: rehabilitation robotics, neuromechanics, spatial robotics, vision and artificial intelligence, and virtual and augmented reality.