NEWS

Our goal

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Clinical skills are increasing their need for technology-related knowledge, and the world of medicine is characterized by a great technological challenge. The association of technological and medical skills represents an important frontier of higher education.

The goal of this Master is to create a school able to provide transdisciplinary skills to the most relevant players in the field of technologies for rehabilitation, home care, and empowerment of disabled and fragile people. Technologies must become a multiplier and extension of human resources, of the ability to organize and deliver a service, a resource to improve the care interaction, to relieve or limit the psychophysical overload in the activities of care and rehabilitation assistance by formal and informal caregivers, having the patient and his/her needs at the center of the whole process.

This topic requires a strong interaction – a cultural dialogue of professional figures with different backgrounds that need to work together, among which we identify (in a non-exclusive way):

  • physicians (specializing and specialized in physiatry, neurology, geriatrics, etc.);
  • psychologists and neuropsychologists;
  • rehabilitation health professionals (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, nurses, etc.);
  • engineers;
  • health and industrial managers.

Program structureDidactic contents
Immagine3
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PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Currently, the training of professional figures who work in the global field of rehabilitation medicine and assistance occurs independently, and the interaction arises only in the field.

Consequently, it is characterized by evident gaps:

  1. distance between the actual needs of the clinic and the design of new devices;
  2. difficulty of research laboratories to transfer their prototypes to the market;
  3. difficulties for investors to guide and support the innovation process and the healthcare management to lead changes related to the introduction of technologies.

The proposal of this Master is to integrate a group of professional figures with different backgrounds into a classroom and to build common knowledge and a comprehensive full-fledged understanding of the problems and challenges related to the real integration of technologies in the rehabilitation clinic and in the management of the continuity of care and social inclusion. In this way, we can speed up the real impact of these technologies in the lives of patients, their families, and clinical professionals.

The teaching will deal with the understanding of the medical bases of the neurorehabilitation path, the design of the requirements, and technical specifications of technologies and robotics in rehabilitation (including robotics, artificial intelligence, neurostimulation, neuroplasticity, and virtual reality). The program will then address the study of industrial transfer processes, technological evaluation, and innovation. Translational research methodologiesand evidence-based medicine will be addressed. The patient will be at the center of the teaching through appropriate ethical and engagement considerations. The path will conclude with the study of organizational models of some European countries with the purpose of delivering innovative services.

Professional opportunities

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

The Master is organized in a blended form. It consists of 12 modules, 8 online and 4 on-site (i.e., frontal lessons). The on-site modules correspond to 4 long weekends (Thursday-Saturday).
The Master consists of 60 ECTS.

 

In particular, the online modules consist of:

  • one day in a virtual classroom, which includes lectures, case discussions, and group work;
  • 9 short pre-recorded video lessons focused on a very specific topic accompanied by teaching materials, which guide the student’s autonomous study;
  • assignment on the contents of the module to be done in a group.

 

The on-site modules, instead, consist of 3 full days of lectures, round tables, laboratory activities, visits to laboratories, rehabilitation centers, or companies.

 

The Master is completed with a final project work, done in small groups, associated with a clinical reality and followed by a tutor. It will involve the use of new technologies in rehabilitation, and the definition of translational research protocols for the institution visited (selected by the student from a clinical center, start-up, investment fund, or research laboratory).

Minimum attendance percentage: minimum percentage of attendance to the course of 70% is foreseen
Content/modality of eventual final exam: Project work with a final discussion

60

ECTS CREDITS

50

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

Program Contents

Module 1 - Motor control in neurological patients and neuroimages in rehabilitation

The biological bases of motor control will be introduced, focusing on the musculoskeletal system, the central nervous system, and the upper cortical functions. The state of the art of neuroimages will be presented together with open challenges, current limits, and frontiers in the field.

Module 2 – Clinical trial design and statistics in rehabilitation

The unit aims to provide methodologies for the design of clinical trials, the statistical analysis of results, and systematic reviews with meta-analyses in the neurorehabilitation field.

Module 3 - Instrumental analysis of motor performance

This module will introduce the main methods of motor performance analysis. Methods for acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of kinematics, kinetics, and electromyographic signals will be presented.

Module 4 - Robotics for upper and lower limb

Technologies for robotics assistance in rehabilitation, prosthetics, and daily assistance will be introduced from the clinical and engineering perspectives. A presentation of technological tools in rehabilitation robotics like functional electrical stimulation and mobile brain-body imaging will be given through case studies.

Module 5 - Soft robotics and technologies for workers and user interfaces

The recent advancements and main challenges in soft robotics will be outlined concerning the rehabilitative and working contexts. The topic of user interfaces and usability will be addressed through the design, development, and testing process of wearable devices.

Module 6 - Virtual and augmented reality and digital health/e-health for telerehabilitation and telemonitoring

The applications of virtual reality in the rehabilitative context will be presented. The focus will be on virtual reality with children with autism spectrum disorders and on the opportunities opened by this technology. E-health solutions and robotics solutions for telemonitoring and telerehabilitation will also be introduced through use cases regarding physical rehabilitation and the early identification of learning diseases.

Module 7 - Robotics and virtual reality in neurorehabilitation: laboratory experience

In this in-presence session, students will have the opportunity to experience virtual reality and robotics solutions for neurorehabilitation previously discussed during lectures.

Module 8 – Artificial Intelligence in neurorehabilitation

The state of the art of artificial intelligence in neurorehabilitation will be presented through an overview of methods and case studies.

Module 9 - Perception and proprioceptive training and neuroprosthetics

This in-presence module gives the fundamentals of sensory perception and proprioception and introduces how rehabilitation technology can improve/restore perception and proprioception thanks to training and neuroprosthetic devices.

Module 10 – Functional Electrical Stimulation. Ethics and patient-doctor communication

This unit will introduce functional electrical stimulation (FES) applications in rehabilitation. The unit will also address clinician-patient communication, ethics in rehabilitation, and the role of the ethical committee and technology in promoting research and guaranteeing people.

Module 11 – Health Technology Assessment methodology and healthcare facilities layout

The module will provide common knowledge and examples of methodologies and procedures for health technology assessment, cost-utility analysis, and multiple criteria decision analysis. Furthermore, the topic of the architectural design of rehabilitation spaces will be introduced.

Module 12 – Benchmarking and clinical and industrial translation

In this in-presence module at Hospital Los Madroños (Spain), the students will be introduced to the topic of benchmarking in the context of the most important European benchmarking facility for robotics systems. A discussion on the main challenges and unmet needs in translating the results of research into the clinical and industrial environments will also be presented.

Soft skills

The Master also includes MOOCs (Massive Online Open Course), which focus on soft skills (communication, interdisciplinary team management, conflict management), created by METID PoliMI (Methods and Innovative Technologies for Didactics).

An extra opportunity for a selection of best students (to be confirmed, according to collected sponsors)

This edition will include one-week Internship at partner institutions available for the best students, to have a personalized hands-on experience.

This extra experience is not mandatory to get the title.

Career opportunities

High profile roles in rehabilitation clinics

High profile roles in rehabilitation services

High profile roles in MedTech industries

Investors in MedTech

Researchers and innovation managers