Neurological diseases such as stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accident (CVA), are a growing disease or pathology in our society. Given that age is one of most confirmed risk factor for neurological disorders, the ageing of the EU population implies a growing number of persons at risk in the next years. Rehabilitation programs based on biomechanical technology systems and virtual reality after stroke have demonstrated a clear influence on the patient's functional improvement. Despite the therapeutic benefits and potential of these methodologies, it is undeniable that their applications are still limited to research and academicals scopes. Experts have not brought down the technical and methodological barriers yet, being these therapies mostly unknown by the majority of healthcare professionals. The aim of this proposal is the development and implementation of an online free access course to assure medical specialist a worthy education and training regarding the applicability of BTS and VR in the context of treatment of neurological patients especially those who have suffered a Stroke. The consortium is composed of four partners with interdisciplinary skills to guarantee the achievement of the project main objective. FPM, IBV and SUT will guarantee the access to the main knowledge of the course. FPM is the bridge between the project and a recognized university in biomechanical instrumentation and techniques and has extensive experience in pedagogic elaboration and adaptation of formative contents for the development of online training courses using open source platforms. IBV is a European leading research center focused on biomechanics and its application in medicine. SUT includes biomedical department, which aims to research and to promote innovative solutions and services based on Virtual Reality and Interactive Technologies. SUT includes “Cave 3D” a unique part of laboratory of Virtual Reality Technologies that is the first cave of virtual reality in Poland enabling 3D projects interactive visualization with integrated motion capture system. The adaptation of the training contents to the requirements of professionals of rehabilitation medicine is assured with the participation of ESPRM. ESPRM is an international and a referent institution which represents the rehabilitation field in Europe. Therefore, ESPRM will play a key role in the harmonization of contents, scopes and applicability of project results. The consortium has also been chosen taking into account the experience and capabilities for EU-wide dissemination. All partners are experienced in dissemination activities at national and international level. The project is planned to 2 years and it is divided into 8 WPs. From WP1 to 5 the core of the project will be carried out, corresponding to the development and validation phases of the online courses. The work in these workpackages will be developed under the frame of three Intellectual Outputs: -IO1. VET Curriculum: this IO will handle the specification and design of the whole model of the e-learning course. -IO2. Online courses integrated in the e-learning platform. -IO3. Final version of the on line courses in English, Spanish, Italian and Polish. WP6 and 7 are respectively dedicated to dissemination and exploitation of the results. WP8 collects all the activities related to project management Project results will enrich medical professionals on the optimization of rehabilitation processes in the functional and cognitive environments. This will allow them to understand and increase the use of current technologies (biomechanical systems and VR), which will be lead to an upgrade in current rehabilitation methodologies with the use of Rehabilitation Stations with VR environments where patients will run exercises performing tasks of daily living. The proposed project will also have a great impact on neurological patients, increasing the degree of functionality, independence and consequently the quality of life of these patients. Furthermore, promoting a web based open access on-line course complemented with the work-based learning and apprenticeship-type training will contribute to get a better standardization and qualifications of target users. This will provide new employment opportunities for them. This project will also have positive impact in the participating organisations. The experience of participating in this project will contribute to reinforce the internationalisation strategy of all partners. Furthermore, partners will strengthen their position on this particular field, acting as a reference centre on biomechanical technology and the application of virtual reality among stake holders. By exploiting the online course, all partners will increase and improve their training course portfolio, gaining visibility among target users and potential future customers.
Neurological diseases such as stroke are a growing disease or pathology in our society. Given that age is one of most confirmed risk factor for neurological disorders, the ageing of the EU population implies a growing number of persons at risk in the next years. Rehabilitation programs based on biomechanical technology systems (BTS) and virtual reality (VR) after stroke demonstrate a clear influence on the patient's functional improvement. Despite the therapeutic benefits and potential of these methodologies, it is undeniable that their applications are still limited to research, academicals scopes or private rehabilitation clinics. These therapies are mostly unknown by the majority of healthcare professionals. Taking into account such context of Brain4Train project the objective was defined as the development and implementation of an online free access course to assure medical specialist, mainly rehabilitators and physiotherapists, a worthy education and training regarding the applicability of BTS and VR in the treatment of patients after stroke. The project consortium was composed of four partners with interdisciplinary skills to guarantee the achievement of the project objective. Silesian University of Technology SUT (Poland), Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia IBV (Spain), Fondazione Politecnico di Milano FPM (Italy) were selected to provide the specialist and up-to-date knowledge for the course. FPM was the bridge between the project and a recognized university in biomechanical instrumentation and techniques and has extensive experience in development of online training courses using open source platforms. IBV is the European leading research center focused on biomechanics and its application in medicine. SUT employs biomedical experts conducting research based on VR and Interactive Technologies including “3D Cave”. This is a unique part of laboratory for VR enabling 3D projects interactive visualization with integrated motion capture system.The adaptation of the training contents to the requirements of professionals of rehabilitation medicine was assured with the participation of European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine ESPRM (Netherlands). ESPRM is an international and a referent institution which represents the rehabilitation field in Europe. Therefore, ESPRM played a key role in applicability of project results. The project lasted 2 years and was divided into 8 WPs. From WP1 to 5 the core of the project was carried out, corresponding to the development of training contents and validation of the online course on using innovative VR and BTS in rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. The work in these WPs resulted with the creation of three Intellectual Outputs IO: -IO1 VET Curriculum that aim was to develop specification and design of the whole model of the e-learning course and that is compatible with ECVET politics, -IO2 Online course integrated in the e-learning platform that aim was to elaborate training contents based on up-to-date knowledge of using VR and BTS for rehabilitation of post-stroke patients and that are available in different forms of representation. -IO3 Final version of the on line courses in English, Spanish, Italian and Polish, that aim was to translate training contents and make them available for a wide international audience.WP6 and 7 were dedicated to dissemination and exploitation of the results respectively. WP8 contained all the activities related to project management.Project results are enriching medical professionals on the optimization of rehabilitation processes in the functional and cognitive environments. This is allowing them to understand and increase the use of VR and BTS and make them capable to upgrade the current rehabilitation methodologies with the new technologies.Brain4train project has a great impact on neurological patients, giving them an opportunity to enhance motivation to perform excercises and perform tasks of daily living with both clinic assistant and at home. This increases the degree of functionality, independence and consequently the quality of life of these patients. Furthermore, promoting a web based open access on-line course complemented with the work-based learning and apprenticeship-type training contributes to get a better standardization and qualifications of target users. This will provide new employment opportunities for them. Bran4Train has positive impact in the participating organizations. The experience of participating in this project contributed to reinforce the internationalization strategy of all partners. Furthermore, partners strengthened their position on this particular field, acting as a reference centre on biomechanical technology and the application of virtual reality among stakeholders. By exploiting the online course, all partners increased and improved their training course portfolio, gaining visibility among target users and potential future customers.