Long-term Telerehabilitation for Patients With Stroke

Stroke is perennially one of the leading causes of human disability. Stroke is truly a chronic disease, with survivors living for years or decades after the event. Increasing evidence describes years of steady decline in several health measures for stroke survivors. Many factors contribute to this, including further strokes, uncontrolled risk factors, development of late complications of stroke, and limited access to rehabilitation therapy.

New approaches are needed that address the many needs of stroke survivors, efficiently and in aggregate. Emerging telehealth technologies have high potential to address this major unmet need, but substantial innovation will be needed. The long-term goal is to establish a telehealth platform to treat chronic stroke.

A telehealth system will be delivered to enrollee's home. Patients will be asked to interact with their system daily (at least 6 days/wk) for 12 weeks. For 3 times per week, during the first 2 weeks, and then 1 time per week thereafter, a study therapist or research assistant in the lab will use the telehealth system to have a videoconference with the subject, to answer questions, provide feedback, review progress, and make any changes needed in the therapy plan. Study personnel will monitor usage statistics and performance measures for all systems.

A key strategy is to measure in parallel, patient behaviors in three categories of health issues central to chronic stroke: (1) medical management issues including risk factor knowledge and control, (2) disability issues including motor function, and (3) psychological issues including depression and anxiety.

Inclusion criteria

• Age ≥18 years at the time of randomization
• Stroke that is radiologically verified, due to ischemia or to intracerebral hemorrhage or subarachnoid hemorrhage, and with any time of stroke onset prior to randomization
• Arm motor Fugl Meyer score of 28-66; if Arm motor Fugl Meyer score> 59, must also have Box & Blocks on affected side >25% lower
• Box & Block Test score with affected arm is at least 3 blocks in 60 seconds at the first visit
• Informed consent signed by the subject
• Behavioral contract signed by the subject

Exclusion criteria

• A major, active, coexistent neurological or psychiatric disease, including alcoholism or dementia
• A diagnosis (apart from the index stroke) that substantially affects paretic arm function
• A major medical disorder that substantially reduces the likelihood that a subject will be able to comply with all study procedures
• Severe depression, defined as Geriatric Depression Scale Score >11
• Significant cognitive impairment, defined as Montreal Cognitive Assessment score < 22; note that this exclusion criteria can be waived at the discretion of the study PI, e.g., for aphasia
• Deficits in communication that interfere with reasonable study participation
• Lacking visual acuity, with or without corrective lens, of 20/40 or better in at least one eye
• Life expectancy < 6 months
• Receipt of Botox to arms, legs, or trunk in the preceding 6 months, or expectation that Botox will be administered to the arm, leg, or trunk prior to completion of participation in this study
• Unable to successfully perform all 3 of the rehabilitation exercise test examples
• Unable or unwilling to perform study procedures/therapy, or expectation of non-compliance with study procedures/therapy, or expectation that subject will be unable to participate in study visits
• Concurrent enrollment in another investigational study
• Non-English speaking, such that subject does not speak sufficient English to comply with study procedures
• Expectation that subject will not have a single domicile address during the 12 weeks of therapy, within 75 miles of the central study site
• Note that the presence of wireless home internet connectivity is not an exclusion criterion, but preference may be given to enrollees who do have wireless home internet connectivity because this will enable testing of study hypotheses.