Smart Health TeleRehab

Smart Health TeleRehab to Improve Patient Access to Rehabilitation Services and Productivity for Therapists

05 May 2017

Patients who need rehabilitation therapy services can look forward to greater convenience with the implementation of Smart Health TeleRehab, a Smart Nation initiative. Through the use of wearable sensors and remote monitoring by therapists, patients can undergo their rehabilitation exercises at a time and location of their choice. Therapists and service providers also stand to benefit from better productivity.

Developed together with the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Smart Health TeleRehab will be rolled out as a national pilot by Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) and T-Rehab, a startup by NUS. An application has been filed for patent.

Easy to set up, the system detects and measures motor movements with sensors and algorithms. This enables immediate feedback to patients on whether they are performing the exercises correctly. A video conferencing feature is available to enable patients to consult therapists remotely. Therapists are able to review their patients’ progress asynchronously via smart dashboards.

Smart Health TeleRehab is suitable for patients recovering from conditions including stroke, fractures, lower limb joint replacements or amputations, deconditioning and musculoskeletal conditions. Assessment of the suitability of patients will be made by their doctors, therapists or care team. To date, the solution has been implemented at NTUC Health and TOUCH Home Care. By end-2017, it will also be available to suitable patients and clients of Alexandra Hospital, Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Home Nursing Foundation, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, National University Hospital, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, Ren Ci Hospital, SPD (formerly known as Society for the Physically Disabled),Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Yishun Community Hospital.

A time and motion study conducted by IHiS and NUS in 2015 showed that the solution led to productivity gains of more than 30%. With the rollout of the national pilot, more data on the system’s effectiveness and productivity gains for different patient conditions, patient profiles and therapy treatments will be captured.

Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State for Health, visited the home of a patient on 5 May 2017 to view how Smart Health TeleRehab was deployed. He shared after the visit "Smart Health TeleRehab could transform how therapy services are delivered in Singapore. Patients will benefit from greater convenience, cost savings and better outcomes. Therapists and therapy service providers will also benefit from the productivity improvements."

Mr Bruce Liang, Chief Executive Officer of IHiS and Chief Information Officer at Ministry of Health (MOH), shared: “IHiS is pleased to be able to work with the university researchers, and local start-up T- Rehab on this initiative. We look forward to more of such collaborations, where we can work with partners to trial promising innovative ideas, and bring them from concept to mainstream deployment at a national level to address Singapore’s healthcare challenges.”

Press release issued by Integrated Health Information Systems