Trafford hospital using video-games to improve physiotherapy

Healthcare professionals in Manchester are using personalised video games to help change the way shoulder surgery patients receive physiotherapy.

A team at Trafford Hospital have created the Virtual Physiotherapy (ViP) project to help patients exercise and track their recovery at home. The project aims to make physiotherapy programmes more efficient, improve patient experience and increase the number of patients who can be treated by physiotherapists.

The system behind the project has been developed software company Mira Rehab and turns physiotherapy sessions into fun-to-play games. It uses a sensor to track and assess patient compliance, so their progress can be monitored as they progress through the games.

When patients log into the system, the range of movement in their shoulder is measured and recorded. They then play a number of games to achieve their personalised physiotherapy goals.

ViP is intended to run alongside face-to-face physiotherapy sessions, with patients moving between virtual and in-person appointments based on their clinical needs. Typically, a patient with a shoulder problem will need eight sessions of physiotherapy after keyhole surgery. The first ViP session is an assessment that determines the patient’s physiotherapy programme.

The games were introduced at Trafford Hospital following successful clinical research supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN).

The research was led by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) consultant orthopaedic surgeon Mr Bibhas Roy.

The system was tested with a multicentre randomised control trial, involving multiple hospitals in the North West. Study results showed that the games were equally as effective as standard post-operative physiotherapy and they also helped patients feel more motivated.

It’s estimated that 20 patients a month having shoulder surgery will benefit from ViP.

Roy said: “Supervised physiotherapy is a major resource provided by the NHS, but it is estimated that up to two thirds of patients fail to stick to their exercise programme outside of sessions with their physiotherapist. ViP aims to increase the number who do, and help them to achieve better rehabilitation outcomes. We expect to replace about 50% of the standard physiotherapy sessions with these new virtual tools.”

He added: “This is what research is all about - we have done the validation work, we have proved it helps patients, and now it is translating into real clinical practice.  We could not have got to this stage without the collaboration of Mira Rehab, who have developed a game-changing tool which complements the work we do.  Crucially, our study shows the games give patients extra motivation for physiotherapy and I believe we are approaching a stage, in the not too distant future, where this approach will become the norm.”

Cosmin Mihaiu, Mira Rehab co-founder and chief executive officer, said: "From the beginning, we wanted to build a physiotherapy tool to help patients play their way to recovery, and not a new game for general public to enjoy in their leisure time. "

“Therefore it is very rewarding to see our work being incorporated into NHS care in a way that can help patients achieve a better recovery, and have a better time in the process.”