MedBike: Virtual Reality for Remote Cardiac Rehabilitation

MedBike was developed as a method of increasing the adherence of patients who have been referred to a rehabilitation program. A two tiered interface was designed (patient and clinician) whereby the patient can exercise on a bicycle within the comfort of their own home while being monitored by an ECG, arterial oxygen saturation, and blood pressure sensors. A virtual reality feature has been designed to allow patients to cycle through different environments. The clinician  have live access to the biometric information, a bidirectional video and audio feed, and can monitor 6 patients simultaneously. Cardiac rehabilitation in particularly has been reported to reduce the incidence of mortality due to repeated events and progress of disease by 25% in the first year following a major cardiac event. Among the barriers reported to prevent patients from adhering to rehabilitation programs are distance and transportation from the hospital, self-motivation, social support, and self-esteem. We believe MedBike will attend to these reasons for program attrition by allowing patients the ability to exercise in the home environment while being in direct communication with the supervising clinician, including biometric monitoring. There is also the potential for patients to communicate with each other during the program which provides a level of social interaction. This is important in particular for patients who have established relationships with other patients during their in-hospital stays.

MedBIKE System

MedBIKE Clinician Interface

MedBIKE Patient Interface

 

MedBIKE Patient Avatar Representation