As part of the AiBle project, a 3 year UK/France cross-border EU Interreg project, our French clinical partner spent 2 days in the UK with us. Professor Olivier Rémy-Néris from the Faculty of Medicine, Brest University Hospital Centre in France, wrote in his letter of thanks:
“I spent two days in Hobbs facilities in Bristol February 2nd 2023 and in Winchester the day after. All the therapists I met had shown a great level of skills using a great number of technical devices and explaining their use in their daily practice. They also showed a great level of attention to my questions and gave appropriate and very relevant answers.
I was also able to see how those skills of therapists were applied to the therapy and patients with a great efficiency, though I cannot evaluate the results in such a short period of time. All the patients I met seemed very invested in his rehabilitation Program”.
On the site visit to Hobbs Winchester, we showcased our upper limb, robotics and exoskeleton technology with patients and had the opportunity to discuss the development of Virtual Reality games development with emphasis on upper limb rehabilitation.
At Bristol Intensive Neurotherapy Centre, also where MiNT headquarters are based, centre lead Alison Gomes Da Silva told us: “Olivier came here to look and try our robotic technology, and to discuss our intensive therapy programmes as this was the design of the clinical protocol for AiBle. We also discussed the differences in the UK and French healthcare systems and how this might impact the use of robotics in the clinical setting.
In a recent visit to France: Alison Watt, MiNT Academy Lead and I learned about other research projects that Olivier and his team are involved with, and visited the hospital in Brest where the AiBle study would be completed. We also visited another rehabilitation unit in Kerpape which was very inspirational and met with their research team to hear about the technology research they are doing at the centre”.
The visits enabled further collaboration between the clinical partners and further strengthened our planning for upcoming protocol delivery as the project nears completion.
More about AiBle:
The AiBle project aims to improve the recovery experience of stroke patients with better treatment effects and efficiency by developing an upper-limb rehabilitation exoskeleton robot based on AI and cloud computing. More information available at https://www.euaible.com