The University Hospital Virgen del Rocío of Sevilla is participating in PROCUR@, a research project on telerehabilitation for post-stroke patients. The study is financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and it is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

The project will consist of studying the development and validation of IT tools aimed at supporting the rehabilitation of patients who suffered a stroke. PROCUR@ stands for 'Plataforma abieRta de sOporte a la prevenCión y rehabilitación de enfermedades neUrodegeneRativAs' in Spanish. It translates to 'Open Platform for supporting the prevention and the rehabilitation of neurodegenerative diseases' in English.

More specifically, PROCUR@ is intended to pilot and assess a platform for the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases, as well as teleassistance to and telerehabilitation of the patients, by including all the persons involved in the management of the latter. Therefore, the project is based on a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach of a virtual community where social and health workers, carers, patients, families, friends and other users can interact; they will thus participate in improving healthcare and quality of life outcomes for this group of patients.

Physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists, physiotherapists, speech and occupational therapists and nurses from the rehabilitation unit as well as experts in biomedical informatics from the Technological Innovation Group, University Hospital Virgin del Rocío, will join forces with researchers from both the Universities of Sevilla and Saragossa and private companies specialised in IT. The Parkinson Association of Aragón and the Novaire Alzheimer Centre in Alicante will also participate in the study.

During the first three months of the project, the University Hospital Virgen del Rocío group will determine which patients will be benefiting from these IT tools, for both the prevention and treatment of neurocognitive sequelae in particular. Work will be conducted on physical and memory recovery, communication, and more. 

Further information: 

• Original news article - Virgen del Rocío University Hospital - NOTICIAS 2012 section -Last retrieved 04/05/12 (in Spanish)
• PROCUR@ (in Spanish)