The ETH RESC – Suva Funding Programme, which supports R&D in prevention, rehabilitation, and health economics with a focus on accident-​related injuries, has awarded its first grant to “RehabCoach”. The project will start in October 2022 and run for three years. The interdisciplinary research group is led by RESC members Dr Olivier Lambercy, Senior Scientist at the Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory (RELab) at D-​HEST, and Dr Tobias Kowatsch, Professor for Digital Health Interventions at the University of Zurich (UZH), Director at the School of Medicine, University of St.Gallen (HSG), and Scientific Director of the Centre for Digital Health Interventions (CDHI) at ETH Zurich (D-​MTEC), UZH, and HSG.

“RehabCoach” is a novel digital platform to support remote rehabilitation. The project will deliver a proof-of-concept for remote technology-​supported rehab interventions. The aim of the project is to increase access to remote care for patients who have suffered a neurological injury.

RehabCoach will take the form of an interactive smartphone-​based app that can act as an intermediate layer between patients, healthcare professionals and rehabilitation technologies. Functions will include support with unsupervised therapy plans and setting daily goals, reminders to the user via text messages, and an artificial-​intelligence-based chat function. Further, the app will provide access to information and collect data via questionnaires and metrics related to app use.

Dr Olivier Lambercy shared his motivation for the project: “We expect this approach to increase patients’ motivation and engagement during remote, unsupervised rehabilitation with the robotic device and through that increase the dose of quality therapy after discharge, leading to improved health outcomes.”

All the best to Dr. Olivier Lambercy and his colleagues on launching this exciting project!

This summary is based on the news article written by Miriam Daepp. You can read the full article here:
ETH RESC News Article, published 22 September 2022