REMOTE IMMERSIVE TELEREHABILITATION

Telerehab, or doctor-patient consultation by phone or video, lacks a sense of touch that makes it impossible for the doctor to fully evaluate a patient's musculoskeletal movements, says University of Texas at Dallas computer science professor Prabhakaran Balakrishnan. Balakrishnan and his graduate students Yuan Tian and Suraj Raghuraman have developed a 3-D rehabilitation therapy to allow users to physically interact using pressure-operated devices. When a patient applies pressure to his device, a similar device in the doctor's office moves with the same force "as if the patient were physically pressing the doctor's hand," says Balakrishnan. This system has been tested at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center with patients with upper body rehabilitation needs.