Tel.

+49 241 8087011

e-Mail: disselhorst-klug@hia.rwth-aachen.de
www. Rehabilitation-Engineering.com

Technically Assisted Rehabilitation at the RPE

Life is movement and movement is life. The fact that impairment of the musculoskeletal function has a high socio-economic impact is the reason why development of new devices is specializing on the measurement of movement physiology, a field which is expected to become increasingly important in the next years due to the development of the age distribution in Western societies. This is why the Department of Rehabilitation and Prevention Engineering (RPE) is focused on
the development and implementation of patient customized assistive technologies to restore
motor function and to prevent musculoskeletal dysfunction and which support the doctors during
diagnosis, therapy planning and evaluation of the success of therapy by means of objective data.
The success of rehabilitation of musculoskeletal functions depends on quality, quantity and method of physiotherapeutic training. This implies that the exercises have
to be done frequently. As a consequence, the responsibility for the performance of
exercises has to be handed over to the end-user. Different assistive technologies are
developed at the RPE facilitating a self-motivated physiotherapeutic exercise customized to the patients individual needs. These assistive technologies comprise:

end-effector based, robot guided rehabilitation systems,

intelligent biofeedback training systems for extramural rehabilitation,

and iPhone-based systems for the detection of limping during gait.

RPE runs its own movement-analysis-Lab which allows the contactless detection of free body
movements with high spatial und time resolution.
Developments of the RPE are based on a close co-operation
with different clinical partners, which contribute to taskoriented interdisciplinary research in the field of movement
Biomechanics. Furthermore, RPE belongs to the Institute of
Applied Medical Engineering, which is one of the largest institutes for Biomedical Engineering in
Germany. We are focused on a profound theory-based and practice-oriented scientific education
of students and employees. To this end RWTH Aachen University offers an exceptional opportunity with its combined expertise in the technical faculties, the natural sciences faculty and the medical faculty within the University Hospital. The city of Aachen is love at first sight. Approaching the
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