Can telehealth improve stroke rehabilitation access?

Stroke patients require high doses of intensive rehabilitation therapy to improve functional outcomes, but many are unable to access or sustain this care for a variety of reasons.

A new study led by Steven Cramer,  MD, Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and medical director of research at California Rehabilitation Institute, and Dylan Edwards, PhD, professor of rehabilitation medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, will investigate the potential of telehealth to address these obstacles.

The “Telerehabilitation In The Home After Stroke: A Randomized, Controlled, Assessor-Blind Clinical Trial” will recruit 202 patients with significant arm motor deficits four months after stroke onset and randomize them into one of two therapies: a 6-week course of intensive daily arm motor rehabilitation therapy at home plus typical in-person care or typical in-person care alone.

Cramer hypothesizes that adding the six-week course to usual care will result in better functional outcomes compared to typical care alone. Additionally, the study will test how well neuroimaging measures help to predict candidates who are most likely to respond to telehealth care. Cramer and his team will also examine the health economic impacts of telerehabilitation therapy. T

he study aims to generate definitive evidence that continued rehabilitation therapy done remotely helps post-stroke patients at a time when medical systems reduce or end rehabilitation care.