Physiotherapy at home could get VR boost

The combination of technologies can provide guidance and feedback to patients outside a clinical setting, helping them not only to perform exercises correctly but also retain their interest in completing the treatment. Currently, patients prescribed physiotherapy at home usually rely on leaflets with sketches or photographs of the required exercises. But this can lead to poor compliance, with patients getting bored or being uncertain if they are performing the movements correctly.

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In the WMG study, patients wearing a VR headset were asked to mimic the movements of a virtual avatar, stepping in time with the digital instructor. Without the knowledge of the participants, the researchers subtly slowed down or speeded up one of the avatar's steps, then measured the effect this correction had on the patients’ step timing and synchronisation.

"If participants were observed to correct their own stepping to stay in time with the avatar, we knew they were able to accurately follow the movements they were observing,” said WMG’s Omar Khan, lead author of the study, published in PLOS ONE.