Robot helps bring physiotherapy and rehabilitation services to rural First Nations

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Rehabilitation and physiotherapy services can be crucial in maintaining quality of life, especially as people age, but many in rural Manitoba have had little to no access to those services.

Now regular and essential physio and rehab services are being offered to people in Pinaymootang First Nation and Lake Manitoba First Nation through the help of a videoconferencing robot, while the physiotherapist remains in another city.

Clinton Anderson from Pinaymootang First Nation is seeing the benefits of this service. Nearly two years ago, Anderson was nearly killed in a workplace crash. He was driving down a winter road in Ontario when a semi-truck collided with his truck, leaving Anderson with multiple lacerations, broken bones and a concussion

"My life is no longer the same from what it was before," Anderson said.

Anderson's recovery was made even more difficult by the lack of available physiotherapy and rehabilitation services close to Pinaymootang. Anderson often travelled to different communities — like to Winnipeg, over 200 km to the south — and saw different physiotherapists.

"At one time there, I was probably seeing maybe six different therapists," he said. "Seeing a different one every month and it's just like you're back to square one every time."

Anderson and others in both Pinaymootang and Lake Manitoba First Nation are now able to access more regular appointments for rehab and physio through tele-rehabilitation services made available in two Interlake communities through a collaboration among Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority, Riverview Health Centre and the University of Manitoba.

Remote physio with hands-on help
"I can sign in from my office in [Winnipeg] with my laptop and I can move the robot around as I need to," physiotherapist Tim Romanec said.

"I can rotate it. I can change the camera angle up or down, side-to-side, and that allows my rehab assistant [on site in the community] to be hands-free and just worry about working with the client."

The robot, made by Temibots, is an autonomous AI assisted piece of equipment than Romanec can control from Winnipeg using voice commands. It has cameras and sensors, and can navigate the room and around obstacles. Clients see Romanec's face on the screen and can interact with him just like a video call.

"The goal is to lessen the burden on the health-care system," he said. "With us being able to see people in different parts of Manitoba and more rural settings, it should be able to lessen the strain on the system."

The robot, who the team has dubbed Wall-E, allows Romanec to see his client and their therapy session from every angle. He can ensure the client's rehab movements and exercises are being done correctly despite being hundreds of kilometres away, while his assistant is in the room offering all of the hands-on work that needs to be done.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba ... -1.7385778