A Socially Assistive Robot for Long-Term Cardiac Rehabilitation in the Real World

• DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2021.633248
• Publication Date: 2021-03-16T06:48:09Z
• Authors: Nathalia Céspedes; Bahar Irfan; Emmanuel Senft; Carlos A. Cifuentes; Luisa F. Gutierrez; Mónica Rincon-Ron...; Tony Belpaeme; Marcela Múnera
• Keywords: Interacción a largo plazo; 0209 industrial biotechnology; Technology and Engineering; Robot social; Cardiac rehabilitation; social assistive robotics; Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry; social robot; 02 engineering and technology; human-robot interaction; Social assistive robotics; long-term interaction; Medicine and Health Sciences; Medical technology; Robótica de asistencia social; Tecnología médica; Interacción humano-robot; 2. Zero hunger; Rehabilitación médica; 1. No poverty; Medical rehabilitation; Robótica médica; 3. Good health; cardiac rehabilitation; Human-robot interface; Robotics in medicine; Interfaz humano-robot; Social robot; Human-robot interaction; human-robot interface; Rehabilitación cardíaca; RC321-571; Neuroscience

What are the benefits of using a socially assistive robot for long-term cardiac rehabilitation? To answer this question we designed and conducted a real-world long-term study, in collaboration with medical specialists, at the Fundación Cardioinfantil-Instituto de Cardiología clinic (Bogotá, Colombia) lasting 2.5 years. The study took place within the context of the outpatient phase of patients' cardiac rehabilitation programme and aimed to compare the patients' progress and adherence in the conventional cardiac rehabilitation programme (control condition) against rehabilitation supported by a fully autonomous socially assistive robot which continuously monitored the patients during exercise to provide immediate feedback and motivation based on sensory measures (robot condition). The explicit aim of the social robot is to improve patient motivation and increase adherence to the programme to ensure a complete recovery. We recruited 15 patients per condition. The cardiac rehabilitation programme was designed to last 36 sessions (18 weeks) per patient. The findings suggest that robot increases adherence (by 13.3%) and leads to faster completion of the programme. In addition, the patients assisted by the robot had more rapid improvement in their recovery heart rate, better physical activity performance and a higher improvement in cardiovascular functioning, which indicate a successful cardiac rehabilitation programme performance. Moreover, the medical staff and the patients acknowledged that the robot improved the patient motivation and adherence to the programme, supporting its potential in addressing the major challenges in rehabilitation programmes.