Patient 1 Patient 2 Patient 3 Patient 4 Total0

5

10

15

20

25

Wii HabilitationAdmit Time Average Non

Wii TimeAverage Wii Time

Min

utes

Fig. 1. Patients’ participation is on the Y-axis with time in minutes, and the individual patients on the X-axis. The blue represents the first time when tested on dynamic activity, the orange represents the average in dynamic activity over time without using the Wii. The yellow represents the average over time doing dynamic activity with the Wii.

Abstract—Patients working with the Wii will participate in dynamic standing and sitting exercises longer secondary to visual stimulus and distraction.

I. INTRODUCTION E used patients that could participate in the Wii as determined by their willingness to participate, their

ability to use their hands, their weight (limit for the Wii Fit Balance Board is 330 lbs), their medical condition and their participation in acute rehabilitation. The patient continued to do normal therapies with the substitution of 30 minutes to one hour of the therapy as therapy with the Nintendo Wii. Patients were initially tested with dynamic standing or sitting time without any Wii activities. During PT and OT sessions, the patients were then timed with dynamic standing or sitting with and without the Wii. We attempted to have patients alternate in therapies between using the Wii and not using the Wii. Therefore, patient's generalized improvement was eliminated from the averages.

Patients were tested with multiple games including Boom Blox, Wii Fit and Wii Sports. Wii Sports and Boom Blox involve upper body dynamics while the patient's legs are in a similar position. With Wii Fit, the balance board brings a unique opportunity for patients to be able to stand while doing endurance, yoga, balance, or aerobic activities. Occupational therapists and physical therapists both notice an increased amount of motivation to complete these activities. They also notice that the therapists themselves are able to participate more in one on one observation and guidance while the game system works as an assistant, like a physical therapy assistant

II. CONCLUSION We found that patients that play the Wii increase duration participating in therapy and are able to participate in dynamic standing or sitting for longer periods of time.

REFERENCES

[1] None.

This work was supported by St. Mary’s Medical Center (This paper

has not been peer reviewed.) A. Ramchandari. is with Stanford University (phone # 650-725-4000 email: ar@ramchandani.net). J. Liu is an attending physician at Stanford University; .K. Carroll, R. Buenaventura, J. Douglas, and J. Liu are with St. Mary’s Medical Center (phone # 415-668-1000 email: Justin.liu@chw.edu)

W

Wii-habilitation increases participation in therapy

Avinash Ramchandani, Kevin Carroll, Roel Buenaventura, Jason Douglas and Justin Liu

TABLE I UNITS FOR MAGNETIC PROPERTIES

Patient Admit Time Dynamic Stand/Sit Non-Wii

Dynamic Stand/Sit Wii

1 2.3 4.8 6.4 2 2.0 2.3 6.9 3 5.0 6.2 20.0 4 2.7 2.7 2.8

Total 3.0 4.0 9.0

978-1-4244-2701-7/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE 69