Video Rehabilitation Might Help Stroke Victims in Remote Areas

Pilot project highlights potential, limitations of telemedicine approach

14 June 2010

A robust telemedicine system of audio and video links is being tried out for rehabilitation services in Northern Canada.

Telemedicine has been used for years to deliver medical care to remote locations by audio or video links. Now, Canadian researchers are exploring the possibility of using that same technology to provide rehabilitation services to stroke patients in remote areas.

Mention rehabilitation for stroke victims, and you probably think of hands-on therapists working to restore speech or mobility. But when patients live in a remote community hundreds of kilometers from the specialists they need, that kind of therapy may not be possible. Fortunately, for many residents of Northern Canada, a robust telemedicine system of audio and video links is being tried out for rehabilitation services.

Esme French, of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Center, led a pilot study to test the feasibility of the concept.

"We were able to identify rehabilitation needs post-stroke," she says. "There were particular needs related to mobility in terms of making sure people were safe. So often the therapists were looking at prescribing equipment, such as canes or walkers, looking at making suggestions of how to modify the home to make it safer for the client."