The elderly continue to be most at risk of suffering from a stroke despite declining incidence rates in Singapore. The Singapore Millennium Foundation (SMF) – a non-profit philanthropic organisation supported by Temasek –is exploring alternative post-stroke tele-rehabilitation treatments.

Home-based tele-rehabilitation is a cost-effective solution that may remove barriers which typically hinder the ability of post-stroke patients from getting adequate and supervised rehabilitation after their discharge from hospital. This includes transportation problems in traveling between their homes and rehabilitation facility as well as other cost issues.

Such options become increasingly important as the supply of skilled healthcare workers is unable to keep pace with Singapore’s ageing population.

Consisting of live video conferencing, customized applications on tablet devices, as well as sensors to measure patients’ movement, therapists are able to track and provide an assessment of their patients’ recovery progress based on the number of repetition of exercises performed and whether these are done correctly.

Through a $750,000 research grant from SMF, clinical trials conducted by NUS  have been underway since December 2013 to test the effectiveness of a tele-rehabilitation system.

These randomised controlled trials, currently involving 13 patients recruited from the Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital (AMK-THKH) and the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), have garnered positive feedback from both therapists and the patient families.