This week, Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Michelle Woodbury about stroke telerehabilitation research underway in SC. Dr. Woodbury is a Professor and occupational therapist in the College of Health Professions at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Cognitive problems resulting from stroke affect up to 70% of survivors and make it challenging for them to benefit fully from rehabilitation. Doctor Michelle Woodbury is here to talk about a stroke telerehabilitation program in research that focuses on addressing cognition first and then adding occupational therapy. Doctor Woodbury is a professor and occupational therapist in the College of Health Professions at MUSC. Doctor Woodbury, how might cognitive issues after a stroke make it harder for individuals to participate fully in stroke rehab?
Dr. Woodbury: Stroke causes damage to the areas of the brain controlling cognition, which are thinking skills. So, stroke survivors might have difficulty with memory or paying attention to an activity in the midst of a distracting environment. Sometimes stroke survivors experience mental fatigue, mental exhaustion, so these cognitive issues make it difficult to fully engage in a stroke rehab program. Because stroke rehabilitation programs are lengthy and they're challenging, they require that the survivor practice doing complex, meaningful activities many days a week for many weeks.
Conner: Tell us about the MUSC Stroke Telerehabilitation research that you and your team are involved in, along these same lines.
Dr. Woodbury: So, in this NIH funded program, we uniquely integrated cognitive rehabilitation into occupational therapy via telerehab. Telerehab gives stroke survivors access to specialized rehab services no matter where they live in South Carolina. And because the therapy program occurs in the patient's own home, it can be easily tailored to the client's own personal goals and needs within their own home environment.
Conner: And what kinds of activities or tasks might the participant really be doing in this telerehab?
Dr. Woodbury: So, the patients are logging into this video conferencing call using their own phone, their tablet or their computer while they're in their own home. And the therapist identifies the goals that are most important to that client, and then coaches the patient while they practice doing those real life activities. So, for example, if the patient is working in their own kitchen to prepare a meal in real time with the therapist, via that video call, the patient learns and practices both the cognitive strategies and the physical strategies that they need to have in order to be successful at preparing that meal. Subsequent telerehab sessions then, will utilize that similar coaching and activity practice approach for other meaningful life activities.
Conner: What are the preliminary results so far from this research project?
Dr. Woodbury: So, the preliminary results are overwhelmingly positive. We've had positive feedback from stroke survivors, from caregivers and from therapists providing the telerehab services. The patients have found that the cognitive strategies are very useful, and they've reported that they're using these strategies not only during the therapy sessions but during the non therapy sessions. And then both the measures of cognition and function have improved significantly.
Conner: Where is this research project headed next.
Dr. Woodbury: So, the next step in this project is to go beyond stroke rehab. So, we are planning to make this cognitive rehab plus occupational therapy program available to people who notice that their cognitive skills are not what they should be.
Conner: Doctor Woodbury, thanks for talking with us about this stroke telerehab program.
Dr. Woodbury: Thank you for having me.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
