EAGER: An Exploratory Pilot Project to Build Human-Centric Physical Activity Monitoring Tools for Enhancing Rehabilitation Therapy Engagement and Assessment

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There are many types of disabilities caused by arthritis, where systematic physical activity and physical therapy are essential to preventing further deterioration. The challenge here is that periods of severe pain are an obstacle to such activities. The relationship between pain and physical activity is very tricky; it typically involves all joints (e.g., hands, wrists, feet, knees) and is a major cause of reduced quality of life and disability. This is the case with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), a chronic systemic inflammatory disease, where preserving functional range of motion and enhancing cardiovascular health are primary goals of physical therapy. Persons with RA who exercise regularly show not only improvements in muscle strength and overall physical and health function, but also reduced mortality. But it has been shown that long-term engagement in exercise among patients with RA is poor and does not exceed 50% when patients are not supervised. This results in a huge cost to national health care and to national productivity. The PI argues that computer technology (tools and interfaces) can help the RA patient remain motivated and maintain movement. In this exploratory project her team will develop some of the components for motion capture and data integration that will eventually be integrated into a system called RPLAY which will enable patients with RA to perform physical therapy at home while the system accurately monitors their joint motions, motor performance and other physiological indicators. Specific objectives include: development of preliminary tools for human-centric adaptive remote monitoring, including facial, hand, arm, and body motions, and range of motion; development of prototype interactive games to encourage patient rehabilitation, and of a prototype user interface through which the patient and therapist can communicate via avatars to promote physical activity; and development of tools for validating the physical therapy monitoring and assessment results and their integration into a visualization and report system. Broader Impacts: This project addresses issues of human joint pain and physical inactivity, which adversely affect the everyday lives of millions of people. It will lay the foundations for integrating disparate human data of persons in similar conditions, which will advance and extend the relationship between engineering innovation and computational analysis. The project will provide a training experience for computer science PhD students in modeling human motion in innovative ways. The project will also lead to an interdisciplinary course for physical therapy and computer science students on improving health delivery and rehabilitation practices.