A visit to QUASR
The QUASR group at QUT Gardens Point hosted Prof Doohyung Lee, Head of the Orthopaedic Department at Ajou University College of Medicine in South Korea.
Wearable sensors for biofeedback
Prof Lee presented his research on wearable sensors for biofeedback. The clinical interest is straightforward: rehabilitation depends on exercises being done correctly and often enough at home, and at present there is no reliable way of knowing whether that is happening. A sensor that can give the patient feedback in real time, and the clinician a record afterwards, would address a real gap.
He will work at the Jamieson Trauma Unit during his visit to Brisbane.
Why rehabilitation is the hard part to measure
After many shoulder operations, and after many shoulder injuries treated without surgery, a great deal depends on the rehabilitation that follows. The surgeon's part is finished in a couple of hours; the patient's part runs for much longer. Progress is usually assessed in a clinic, where range of movement is measured and the patient is asked how the exercises have been going. That gives a snapshot and a recollection rather than a record. Individual results vary.
A sensor worn on the arm records what actually happens between appointments: whether the exercises were done, how often, and through what range. That turns rehabilitation from something reported into something measured, which matters both for the individual patient and for research comparing one rehabilitation protocol with another.
Why research groups host visiting colleagues
Useful criticism of a method tends to come from people working on the same problem by different means, and that is the main reason for inviting a colleague from another country to present. A visit also opens the possibility of collaboration, shared data and student exchange, which is how a small field assembles enough cases to answer a question properly.
Related information
See our rehabilitation and physiotherapy pages, our research page, and our post on the future of shoulder range of motion assessment.