Seminar: Smart Home Based Rehabilitation

Abstract

With the aging of the US population, there is an increasing need for effective and accessible rehabilitation services for debilitating illnesses and injury such as stroke. Effective rehabilitation requires intense training and the ability to adapt the training program based on the progress of the patient and the judgment of the therapist. Adaptive home based rehabilitation is emerging as a key avenue for improving health and wellness outcomes with the potential for reducing costs. This form of Smart Rehab can provide evidence-based customization of therapy in the home, together with the increased intensity necessary for better functional outcomes over a shorter duration. While there are a number of challenges to scaling adaptive rehabilitation in the home, the three primary issues are i) replicating the functions of the therapist in the home; ii) motivating the patient to increase adherence and iii) implementing adaptive rehabilitation through low costs systems. In this talk I will discuss the work of the Interactive Neurorehabilitation Lab at Virginia Tech, where together with our research partners at Carnegie Mellon University, Emory Rehabilitation Hospital and Arizona State University, we are tackling these three issues through developing smart home based rehabilitation systems for stroke and and knee replacement patients.

Bio

Dr. Aisling Kelliher is an associate professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, with joint appointments in the School of Visual Arts and the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology. Aisling creates and studies interactive media systems for enhancing reflection, learning, healing, and communication. She co-leads the Interactive Neurorehabilitation Lab at Virginia Tech where she works with a team of bioengineers, therapists, doctors, designers, and computer scientists in developing interactive systems for stroke rehabilitation in the home. Aisling served as the Paper Chair for ACM Creativity and Cognition in 2017 and for ACM Multimedia in 2016. She is also the regular technology correspondent on the “Culture File” show on Irish national radio. Aisling received a Ph.D. in Media, Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab where she was a member of the Interactive Cinema Group. She also holds an MSc. in Multimedia Systems from Trinity College, Dublin, and a B.A. in Communications Studies from Dublin City University.