Therapeutic Robotics: A Technology Push

In this paper, we present a retrospective and chronological review of our efforts to revolutionize the way physical medicine is practiced by developing and deploying therapeutic robots. We present a sample of our clinical results with well over 300 stroke patients, both inpatients and outpatients, proving that movement therapy has a measurable and significant impact on recovery following brain injury. Bolstered by this result, we embarked on a two-pronged approach: 1) to determine what constitutes best therapy practice and 2) to develop additional therapeutic robots. We review our robots developed over the past 15 years and their unique characteristics. All are configured both to deliver reproducible therapy but also to measure outcomes with minimal encumbrance, thus providing critical measurement tools to help unravel the key question posed under the first prong: what constitutes “best practice”? We believe that a “gym” of robots like these will become a central feature of physical medicine and the rehabilitation clinic within the next ten years.