Serious Games for Wrist Rehabilitation in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel integrated video game framework designed to enhance wrist rehabilitation for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis patients, aiming to improve motivation and engagement during long-term therapy.

Contribution

It presents a new framework with four customizable games and modules for therapists to monitor and control rehabilitation sessions, validated through preliminary clinical testing.

Findings

Patients enjoyed the gaming approach to exercises.

Therapists found the framework useful for engagement and motivation.

Preliminary validation showed positive feedback from both patients and therapists.

Abstract

Rehabilitation is a painful and tiring process involving series of exercises that patients must repeat over a long period. Unfortunately, patients often grow bored, frustrated, and lose motivation making rehabilitation less effective. In the recent years video games have been widely used to implement rehabilitation protocols so as to make the process more entertaining, engaging and to keep patients motivated. In this paper, we present an integrated framework we developed for the wrist rehabilitation of patients affected by Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) following a therapeutic protocol at the Clinica Pediatrica G. e D. De Marchi. The framework comprises four video games and a set modules that let the therapists tune and control the exercises the games implemented, record all the patients actions, replay and analyze the sessions. We present the result of a preliminary validation we performed with four poliarticular JIA patients at the clinic under the supervision of the therapists. Overall, we received good feedback both from the young patients, who enjoyed performing known rehabilitation exercises using video games, and therapists who were satisfied with the framework and its potentials for engaging and motivating the patients.