Can Early Initiation of Rehabilitation With Wearable Sensor Technology Improve Outcomes in mTBI?

Plain-language summary

Every year 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the United States and of these, 84 % are considered mild TBI (mTBI). mTBI is common both in civilian and military populations and can be debilitating if symptoms do not resolve after injury. Balance problems are one of the most common complaints after sustaining a mTBI and often prevent individuals from returning to their previous quality of life. However, the investigators currently lack clear guidelines on when to initiate physical therapy rehabilitation and it is unclear if early physical therapy is beneficial. The investigators believe that the underlying problem of imbalance results from damage to parts of the brain responsible for interpreting sensory information for balance control. The investigators hypothesize that retraining the brain early, as opposed to months after injury, to correctly interpret sensory information will improve recovery. The investigators also believe this retraining is limited when rehabilitation exercises are performed incorrectly, and that performance feedback from wearable sensors, can improve balance rehabilitation. There are three objectives of this study: 1) to determine how the timing of rehabilitation affects outcomes after mTBI; 2) to determine if home monitoring of balance exercises using wearable sensors improves outcomes; and 3) to develop a novel feedback system using wearable sensors to provide the physical therapist information, in real-time during training, about quality of head and trunk movements during prescribed exercises. The findings from this research could be very readily adopted into military protocols for post-mTBI care and have the potential to produce better balance rehabilitation and quality of life for mTBI patients and their families.

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