DREMATRIX

Abstract

Functionally Oriented Music Therapy (FMT) is a special kind of active music therapy, which is focused on the neuropsychological development of patients, evaluated by the observation of the patients’ motor skills and their ability to perceive and react to their environment. The rehabilitation progress is interpreted with the help of observation criteria like stability, hand function, and cross motion. In a field study we recorded three-dimensional motion data of patients with stroke and Parkinson’s disease during their FMT therapy sessions. The results facilitated the development of a computer-assisted software tool supporting FMT therapists with the evaluation of their patients’ rehabilitation progress. Accordingly, we transferred the FMT observation criteria, so far merely based on the personal experience of the therapists, to measurable and calculable parameters to strengthen the assessment of the therapist. The following paper will give an insight into this transfer process which was completed during the first phase of our study. The measurability of the therapy progress permits a long-term computation of the effectiveness of the whole FMT therapy approach for the first time, and the extension of FMT observation criteria with motion analysis parameters leads to a holistic view on FMT. It enables the collaboration between therapists, patients, and physicians, due to a joined assessment vocabulary. The long-term computer-assisted observation is an important contribution to explore the effectiveness of FMT and an important step towards future personalized medical care in this working field.