An Integrated Portable Device for the Hand Functional Assessment in the Clinical Practice

The functionality of the human hand is of paramount importance for the daily life activity of a subject. Several chronic diseases can have localized lesions on the hands, causing disability, as for the Systemic Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis. In these cases the evaluation of the hand functionality is a necessary step for setting up the therapeutic and rehabilitation program. This research presents a novel device tackling this problem, allowing the evaluation of hand dexterity and strength on 4 simple rehabilitation exercises. Real-time controlled by a wirelessly connected PC where a C++ physician graphical interface enables a user-friendly management of the assessment, the device provides hitherto unavailable measurements. A first evaluation of the device in a real outpatient rheumatology clinic has been performed and the preliminary results reveal the potentialities of the approach.