EDMONTON -- The robotics lab at the University of Alberta has developed technology to connect rural patients with rehabilitation specialists hundreds of kilometres away.
Tele-Rehab 2.0 uses what's called virtual rehabilitation platform, or VRP.
The system sends data collected from motion capture, sensors and cameras to a clinician in a city, who then assesses the patient.
"We are collecting data that we don’t collect in face-to-face assessment," said U of A rehab medicine professor Martin Ferguson-Pell.
The technology aims to address the fact that 24 per cent of Albertans live outside major cities. The Tele-Rehab team estimates about one million people in the province don't have access to specialized rehabilitation services in their own communities.
As well, Ferguson-Pell expects Tele-Rehab 2.0 "to improve our ability to demonstrate the value of these kinds of assessments, not just for patients in rural and remote Alberta but also in face- to-face assessments as well."
Tele-Rehab 2.0 will first be put to work in Jasper, Grande Prairie and Peace River in March.
