ISRAEL: Israeli-developed system uses virtual reality to help disabled patients to improve their mobility

Record ID: 395997

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli-developed system uses virtual reality to help disabled patients to improve their mobility
  • Date: 17th February 2007
  • Summary: MAN ON WHEELCHAIR ENTERING ROOM AT REHABILITATION CENTRE VARIOUS OF DISABLED PATIENTS AT ORTHOPAEDIC UNIT DOCTOR EXAMINING PATIENT'S LEGS
  • Embargoed: 4th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Health,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA2U6IKLBNJ3M91GEWM9K327B1L
  • Story Text: Israeli-developed system uses virtual reality to help disabled patients to improve their mobility.
    For some disabled patients in Israel, virtual reality could be a first step towards a new life of better mobility.
    An Israeli-developed system used in physiotherapy helps patients to improve their balance, and for some to learn to walk again, by immersing the patient in a virtual reality sensation.
    Interactive software projects animation features on a video screen, such as boating or balls in motion, while the patient stands on a wooden platform that simulates the movement of the video feature.
    Ido Borovsky, a 26-year-old student, was wounded during his reserve military duty in last summer's Lebanon war. His leg was hit by shrapnel of an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah guerillas and he has since been treated in the rehabilitation centre at the Sheba Medical Centre in Tel Aviv.
    Watching a virtual choppy sea on the screen in front of him, Borovsky moves up and down on two steps on a round platform -- motions that steer a boat through the waves. The aim is to get him to use his injured foot as it heals naturally.
    "With regular physiotherapy I am only just standing or lying in bed and it's more passive. Here I am reacting and moving and doing something," Borovsky said.
    Doctors hope the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) system developed by the Israeli firm "Motek", will help Borovsky walk with more confidence on a foot whose nerves were damaged.
    Technicians control the size of the waves and bumps on a road. They monitor patients' movements and vital signs through sensors stuck to their bodies.
    The system can also benefit patients suffering from ailments like Parkinson's disease or those recovering from strokes, says Tzaki Zivner, head of the Sheba Center's orthopaedic rehabilitation department.
    "We managed to achieve something that there was no way we could have achieved in the traditional physiotherapy," Zivner said.
    "Working with the system not only makes it more enjoyable, they (the patients) have fun playing the games, but it fastens (speeds up) the rehabilitation process. In such a way we can cut hospitalisation days," Zivner added.
    CAREN can also help the disabled "multi-task". While moving along a road and side-stepping bumps along the way, Borovsky also uses his hands, attached to sensors, to "hit" two balls darting wildly across the screen.
    The system, which has a $600,000 price tag, has been used for research overseas. But doctors here say Israel is the only country so far where CAREN has been incorporated into medical treatments.
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