A portable real-time monitoring system for kinesitherapic hand rehabilitation exercises

Rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis, may seriously reduce the quality of life of the patients. Nowadays, their progress can be controlled only through personalised pharmacological treatments. Kinesitherapy can also help in faster movement recovery, also contrasting the disability worsening. This paper presents a portable low-cost system for the real-time quantitative monitoring and evaluation of hand rehabilitation exercises. The system, based on a MSP430 microcontroller central unit, provides a platform for the analysis of fine characteristics hitherto unavailable of 4 exercises required for the hand rehabilitation in rheumatic patients. The system can be controlled, through a Bluetooth connection, by a graphical user interface running on the physician's PC. The first prototypical systems have been developed for experimental outpatient trials.