Ukrainian doctors learn to work with the RGS neurosensory rehabilitation system

Today, the demand for rehabilitation in Ukraine is growing like never before. In addition to developing rehabilitation departments, forming interdisciplinary rehabilitation teams, expanding rehabilitation services and digitalizing processes, the government is actively encouraging the use of telerehabilitation.

Telerehabilitation is a way of providing rehabilitation assistance remotely. One solution that provides effective and affordable rehabilitation is the Rehabilitation Gaming System (RGS), which was delivered to Ukraine as humanitarian aid from the Spanish company Eodyne.

This is a telemedicine solution that allows patients with brain disorders to receive personalized neurorehabilitation playfully.

Recently, the Ministry of Health’s partners, experts from the USAID Sustainable Development of National Health Systems in Ukraine project, conducted a training intensive for rehabilitation specialists who are already actively using the rehabilitation game system.

Anna Totska, a medical expert of the project, occupational therapist at the Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine of the City Clinical Hospital No. 4 of the Dnipro City Council, shared her experience of using RGS inpatient rehabilitation with colleagues.

The expert shared with her colleagues practical cases, approaches and methods of rehabilitation of patients with cognitive and motor impairments due to stroke, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, etc.

“At the workshop, we reviewed several clinical cases that clearly demonstrate the progress of RGS play rehabilitation,” comments occupational therapist Anna Totska. “For example, the rehabilitation experience of our patient, a 58-year-old teacher of Ukrainian language and literature, is illustrative. She was immediately interested in using RGS and incorporating game exercises into her rehabilitation plan. The goals of her rehabilitation are to achieve greater independence, improve motor skills in her right arm, and reduce arthritis pain. Using the RGS, along with a standard occupational therapy program, the patient managed to achieve the normal level of performance on the Montreal Cognitive Functioning Scale within two weeks. In addition, the woman, on her own initiative, continued to perform exercises outside of the inpatient rehabilitation sessions (via a mobile application) and continued her rehabilitation at home with great motivation. Within six months, we managed to significantly improve her mobility, and the patient fully resumed her activities, regained normal use of both hands, and returned to teaching at school.”

This example shows that with RGS, rehabilitation is not limited to the walls of a medical facility: using a phone or a personal computer with a webcam that has a special application installed, a person can continue rehabilitation at home without losing contact with a specialist.

The solution is being actively integrated into rehabilitation facilities across the country. LHSS project specialists provide organizational and technical support to healthcare facilities and are ready to help new institutions start using the solution in their daily routine.

Today, RGS is already available in 50 healthcare facilities in Zakarpattia, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Volyn, Dnipro, Odesa, and Kyiv.

Several hundred rehabilitation specialists have already integrated RGS into individual rehabilitation plans for patients. And patients, in turn, perform effective exercises to restore cognitive and motor function.