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Session: Poster session II
Session starts: Thursday 24 January, 16:00

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Jonathan Dikken (University of Twente)
Bert-Jan van Beijnum (University of Twente)
Hermie Hermens (University of Twente, Roessingh Research and Development)

Abstract:
COPD is a preventable and treatable chronic pulmonary disease which leads to a non-fully reversible airflow limitation. Because of their bad physical condition, COPD patients are inactive and become socially isolated, resulting in an even worse physical condition. To overcome this downward spiral, patients can be enrolled in a rehabilitation program. This consists of group sessions for about 12 weeks, 2 or 3 times a week, at the physiotherapist to perform physical activities, both aerobic exercise as resistance training. After the rehabilitation program, patients need to maintain their physical condition themselves. Often patients are not compliant to the training advice, resulting in a bad physical condition, more COPD related health issues and reenrolment to the rehabilitation program. To improve the compliance to the training advice patients need to be motivated. For that purpose the Integrated Training System (ITS) for COPD patients has been developed. The ITS supports the improvement and maintenance of the physical condition safely, at home and using a virtual group environment. Safety is ensured by preventing oxygen desaturations in the blood. The heart rate and oxygen saturation level is measured for the safety and effectiveness of the exercise. With these parameters, the resistance of the home trainer is set based on an individually tailored control system. The ITS will be used at home. This limits barriers for patients to come to a training session. A virtual group environment is used to enable the motivation of patients. In the virtual group environment, patients are motivated by the system and by each other. The four components of the ITS are the home trainer, the virtual exercise environment, the controller and the web portal. The home trainer is an ergo bike which has a digital computer interface. The virtual exercise environment is a computer game in which a patient can cycle together with other patients. The controller collects data from the home trainer component, analyses it and sets the resistance level on the home trainer to ensure a safe and efficient training and sends the physiological data and exercise data to the web portal. On the web portal this data is shown. Technical evaluation of the ITS prototype shows a accurate heart rate and cadence measurement, a moderate measurement of the power and a poor oxygen saturation level measurement. The control systems of the prototype for performance, safety and training together work as expected. This explorative research is promising in improving and maintaining the physical condition of COPD patients. A solid base is expounded, but improvements and further research need to be done.