Health tech for rehabilitation and accessibility simulated and co-created at Arcada
Published: 04.09.2023 / Event / Rehabilitation
Our everyday environment is far from accessible to everyone. How is the environment perceived by a person with visual impairment? How are different disabilities experienced in everyday activities? At Arcada, the end user is placed at the centre when these questions are answered and new health technology is developed.
On 6 September, the Arcada Health Tech Hub - a unique Swedish-language knowledge centre with a focus on digital solutions within health is inaugurated.
The development of health tech solutions used within diagnosis, follow-up and prevention of different types of diseases and impairments has taken great leaps forward - not only in Europe but also in Finland. Last winter when the operations of Arcada Health Tech Hub started, the development in Swedish health tech solutions took a big step forward. Even before the inauguration, operations are in full swing.
Interdisciplinary research in co-creation
At the moment several interdisciplinary projects are on-going. In one of them, the students in physiotherapy and engineering are collaborating on computer vision as a tool to analyse movement in distance rehabilitation. This requires the technical expertise in imaging the human body using a computer and a camera, to then measure the movement of the end user.
"Here we are at the forefront thanks to the interdisciplinary collaboration between technology and physiotherapy. There is great potential in health technology in the field of rehabilitation and at Arcada we have a real advantage due to the fact that we can involve the end user directly," says Thomas Hellstén, senior lecturer in physiotherapy and active in the interdisciplinary project.
Another ongoing inter-professional project deals with the simulation of environmental barriers for people with visual impairment. The simulation capabilities allow for a better understanding of the accessibility problems that people with visual impairment face in their everyday environment.
“By simulating different lighting and contrasts, we can learn how a person with visual impairment, i.e. the end user in the project, experiences their everyday life in different environments. Here we look at concrete everyday situations such as how visible a sign is in e.g. morning, day or evening light. By simulating the light so that everyone in the project experiences the situation in the same way, we meet on a whole new level and the co-creation results in effective solutions," explains Annikki Arola, principal lecturer in occupational therapy.
On Wednesday 6 September at 16.15 Arcada Health Tech Hub will be inaugurated together with guests and representatives for media (in D2; block D, floor 2). You are warmly welcome to get acquainted with the centre and its co-creation activities.
Arcada Health Tech Hub is a knowledge centre for health technology that puts the end user in focus. At Arcada Health Tech Hub the centre, end users, students, researchers and professionals co-create new health technology solutions for rehabilitation and health care.
Photo: a woman wearing VR glasses. From Pexels.
