Rehago - A Home-Based Training App Using Virtual Reality to Improve Functional Performance of Stroke Patients with Mirror Therapy and Gamification Concept: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Stroke is one of the prevalent diseases which leads to functional disabilities such as hemiparesis or hemiplegia. It is common practice to treat patients with proper rehabilitation as early as possible for better prognosis after the onset of stroke. One of the effective therapeutic techniques for treating stroke patients is mirror therapy, which can potentially facilitate patients' motor function recovery through repetitive practice. "Rehago" is a software as medical device that implements the concept of mirror therapy in combination with gamified exercises into virtual reality (VR) to provide a home-based rehabilitation environment for stroke patients. In this study, 48 stroke patients completed the full course of intervention with Rehago and their functional performance of pre- and post-intervention was investigated. The intervention with Rehago was predefined as 30 minutes training per day, 5 days per week over a course of 6 weeks. The patient's progress was evaluated by their therapists every 14 days, with a baseline assessment before the intervention began. The results showed an average improvement of 5.54 points in the Functional Independence Measurement score, and an improvement of 7.13 points in the assessed quality-of-life score (EQ5D-5L). An improvement of the FIM score and the quality-of-life score in EQ5D-5L was observed, indicating it is beneficial to the patients using Rehago as a home-based rehabilitation tool.

Keywords: Rehago; VR; home-based; mirror therapy; rehabilitation; stroke; virtual reality.