About the project
Musculoskeletal pain, such as osteoarthritis of the knee, is the most common cause and the second largest contributor to “global disability”. In the past 20 years, the incidence of symptomatic arthritis of the knee has doubled among women and tripled among men and is expected to increase significantly in the future due to longer life expectancy and increased BMI. At the same time, the total number of operations with artificial knee (total knee replacement = TKR) is expected to increase by almost 700% by 2030.
Studies in many countries have unanimously concluded that up to 20% of knee patients have persistent pain following surgery. Hence, there has been an international focus on identifying the most optimal non-surgical type of treatment before any potential operation and to identify the most optimal rehabilitation following surgery. The purpose of this research project is to develop and test a tele-rehabilitation program that uses sensor technology for knee surgery patients following surgery.
The perspective is to be able to offer patients home exercise that can be performed more successfully on the patient’s own terms in their daily life, at lower cost, by a greater number of patients and with higher levels of compliance and intensity. The project will be reported to the North Jutland Regional Ethics Committee, the Danish Data Protection Agency and conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki.
Participating in the clinical study are the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Orthopaedic Research Unit of Aalborg University Hospital.
User-driven innovation
The telerehabilitation program will be developed in collaboration with patients, health professionals and researchers.
Target group
Patients who have undergone a knee operation and who reside in North Jutland.
Partners in the project
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Orthopaedic Research Unit, Aalborg University Hospital
- Laboratory for Welfare Technology, SMI, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University
Danish partners in the project
- Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
- Department of Psychology, University of Aarhus
- Patient@Home
- EIR Research and Business Park
International partners
- Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, Tromsø, Norway
- La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
- Cleveland Clinic, USA
- University of California, Berkeley, USA
- University of California, Davis, Health System, USA
- Henry Ford Health System, USA
- Center for Connected Health, Harvard Medical School, USA
Funding
The project is part of a 10 million DKK grant from the Aage and Johanne Louis Hansen Foundation with additional funding from Aalborg University (503,110 DKK) and co-financing in the form of hours worked by all collaborating partners in the project.
Contact
- PhD student Mohammad Reza Naeemabadi. Email: reza(at)hst.aau.dk
- Assoctate Professor John Hansen. Email: joh(at)hst.aau.dk
- Professor Birthe Dinesen. Email: bid(at) hst.aau.dk