Virtual reality, exoskeletons, digital tools and nerve stimulation have transformed patient care.
Exoskeletons, virtual reality masks and implants … What do new technologies bring to rehabilitate the patient, and sometimes into his daily life if the disability persists?
The topic was at the heart of the LabSanté program that aired Tuesday on the MIDI is free, Dr. Jacques Tessier, orthopedic surgeon at the Saint-Jean (Hérault) clinic, Said Daddy, a patient currently being treated at Propara, a highly specialized rehabilitation center for paraplegics and paraplegics.
His intervention was essential: “The patient is our daily fuel, the one who gives meaning to our profession,” Dr. Gillis recalls. Dr. Teessier adds that innovation is “the salt of our practices, which allows us to maintain hope for improving ourselves.”
Said Dadi, who arrived in the summer of 2019 from Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition that can cause severe disabilities (“bacteria attacking the nervous system”), “is now re-learning the movement of walking and the search for balance” and explains that with the help of an external skeleton (exoskeleton), The driving simulator allows him to drop himself into the next life
Assessment, Rehabilitation and Compensation
With what degree of independence? “A few months ago, my body was paralyzed from head to toe. I couldn’t talk, walk, eat or shower on my own. I’m doing it now.” The doctors are unanimous: the new technologies are linked to less invasive surgical techniques, and the triad has “revolutionized” “assessment, rehabilitation and compensation”. “They have diversified the range of tools available to us,” says Dr. Glees, who “has retained 15% of what he learned during his medical studies.”
Isabelle Laffont created the “New Technologies” platform at the Raymond-Poincaré Hospital in Garches in 1995. She worked there for thirteen years, before reaching the University Hospital of Montpellier. “Thirty years ago, it was exploratory. About fifteen years ago, new technologies invaded tech platforms. Sometimes it’s interesting, sometimes not appropriate,” she explains. “We sometimes have very interesting tools, which are not clear in practice,” confirms Anthony Gillis.
You have to be careful, given the investments: 150,000 euros for the exterior, 250,000 to 300,000 euros for the walking track.