Virtual reality, haptics and post-stroke rehabilitation in practical therapy

We address the question of usefulness of virtual reality based rehabilitation equipment in practical therapy, by letting experienced therapists explore one such equipment during six months in their regular practice under natural circumstances. By protocols, questionnaires and focus group interviews we collect data regarding which activities they considered useful, why these are useful and what might improve usefulness of such activities, based on the therapists’ professional judgement and experiences. This resulted in a set of purposeful activities, identified values for therapeutic work, and design guidelines. The conclusion is that such equipment has benefits beyond real life training, that variation in content and difficulty levels is a key quality for wide suitability and that the combination of challenging cognitive activities which encourage motor training was considered particularly useful.