Recent Considerations on Gaming Console Based Training for Multiple Sclerosis Rehabilitation

Abstract

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a well-known, chronic demyelinating disease of the Central Nervous System (CNS) and one of the most common causes of disability in young adults. In this context, one of the major challenges in patients’ rehabilitation is to maintain the gained motor abilities in terms of functional independence. This could be partially obtained by applying new emerging and cutting-edge virtual/augmented reality and serious game technologies for a playful, noninvasive treatment that was demonstrated to be quite efficient and effective in enhancing the clinical status of patients and their (re)integration into society. Recently, Cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) emerged as technologies that can potentially revolutionize patients’ care. To achieve such a goal, a system that on one hand gathers patients’ clinical parameters through a network of medical IoT devices equipped with sensors and that, on the other hand, sends the collected data to a hospital Cloud for processing and analytics is required. In this paper, we assess the effectiveness of a Nintendo Wii Fit® Plus Balance Board (WFBB) used as an IoT medical device adopted in a rehabilitation training program aimed at improving the physical abilities of MS patients (pwMS). In particular, the main scientific contribution of this paper is twofold: (i) to present a preliminary new pilot study investigating whether exercises based on the Nintendo Wii Fit® balance board included in a rehabilitation training program could improve physical abilities and Quality of Life (QoL) of patients compared to that of a conventional four-week rehabilitation training program; (ii) to discuss how such a rehabilitation training program could be adopted in the perspective of near future networks of medical IoT-based rehabilitation devices, interconnected with a hospital Cloud system for big data processing to improve patients’ therapies and support the scientific research about motor rehabilitation. Results demonstrate the advantages of our approach from both health and technological points of view.

Combined extended reality and reinforcement learning to promote healthcare and reduce social anxiety in fragile X syndrome: a new assessment tool and a rehabilitative strategy

“…By merging FXS and XR in Scopus, no records were found, suggesting that further research in this specific area was warranted. For example, one may argue that the healthcare and quality of life of individuals with FXS may be relevantly improved and the burden of parents and caregivers similarly reduced (Celesti et al, 2022 ; Maio et al, 2022b ).…”

Evaluation of the effectiveness of technological advances in health education

“…Por lo tanto, resultaría mucho más limitado el acceso a los pacientes que lo requieren. Es por esto por lo que se determina como más efectiva la adquisición y uso de este dispositivo, ya que, al combinar juegos basado en ejercicios físicos, involucrar la realidad virtual y los videojuegos interactivos, en conjunto con plataformas de rehabilitación en línea, se alcanza una nueva y disponible propuesta para la neuro-rehabilitación en casa [8].…”