Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability, with a substantial proportion of survivors experiencing persistent upper extremity impairment that limits independence in daily activities. While rehabilitation can improve outcomes, access to consistent, high-dose therapy remains a major barrier, particularly in the early months after stroke when recovery potential is highest. The Critical Periods After Stroke Study (CPASS) previously demonstrated that 20 hours of intensive, task-specific upper extremity training delivered within the first six months after stroke leads to clinically meaningful improvements in motor function compared to standard care.
Despite this evidence, many patients face challenges accessing in-person outpatient rehabilitation due to transportation limitations, cost, and geographic barriers. Telerehabilitation offers a potential solution by enabling delivery of structured therapy in the home environment. Prior studies suggest that home-based rehabilitation can achieve outcomes comparable to in-clinic care, while increasing accessibility and adherence. However, the efficacy of a telerehabilitation version of CPASS (tele-CPASS) relative to the established in-person CPASS intervention has not been rigorously tested.
This study is a randomized, controlled, parallel-group trial designed to evaluate whether tele-CPASS is comparable in efficacy to in-person CPASS for improving upper extremity recovery after stroke. Participants will be enrolled in the early post-stroke period and randomly assigned to one of two groups: (1) in-person CPASS delivered in a clinical setting, or (2) tele-CPASS delivered remotely in the participant's home using a secure telehealth platform. Both groups will receive the same total dose (20 hours) of therapist-guided, task-specific training over approximately 2-3 weeks. Therapy is individualized and based on patient-prioritized functional goals, emphasizing repetitive practice of meaningful daily activities.
Study procedures include baseline assessments followed by post-intervention and longitudinal follow-up assessments. In addition to standardized clinical evaluations, this study incorporates objective measurement of real-world arm use using wrist-worn accelerometers. These devices capture continuous movement data during daily life, allowing quantification of functional upper extremity use outside the clinical setting. A structured activity protocol performed in the laboratory and at home, combined with video annotation and machine learning methods, will be used to classify functional versus non-functional arm movements and enhance the ecological validity of outcome measurement.
The trial uses a non-inferiority framework to determine whether outcomes achieved with tele-CPASS are not meaningfully worse than those achieved with in-person CPASS. This approach is appropriate given prior evidence supporting the efficacy of the in-person intervention. Demonstrating comparable effectiveness would support tele-CPASS as a scalable and accessible model for delivering high-intensity stroke rehabilitation.
By directly comparing remote and in-person delivery of an evidence-based intervention, this study addresses a critical gap in stroke rehabilitation. If successful, tele-CPASS may expand access to effective therapy, reduce barriers to care, and inform future models of rehabilitation delivery that integrate clinic-based and home-based approaches.
