SUSTAIN-6G Telemedicine: Remote Rehabilitation with Augmented Reality and AI for Phantom Limb Pain
Politecnico di Torino and MDCreate participate to the SUSTAIN-6G project providing a telemedicine framework that focuses on Remote Rehabilitation Assessment, helping patients recover from home through Augmented Reality guided therapy with real-time AI supervision, particularly useful for those with impaired mobility.
Specifically, the Case Study addresses rehabilitation in the context of Phantom Limb Pain (PLP), a condition that arises following limb amputation. The most common therapeutic approach is mirror therapy, which uses visual feedback to create the illusion of movement in the missing limb. This technique has been shown to alleviate pain, improve motor function, and reduce sensory disturbances. Our goal is to replicate and enhance this therapy by digitally reproducing the mirroring of the healthy limb through Mixed Reality (MR) technologies, enabling remote, personalised, and immersive rehabilitation experiences for amputee patients.
The project strives to improve the medical service in terms of
- accessibility: provide personalised rehabilitation directly to patients’ homes,
- innovation: integrate AI and XR for immersive, adaptive therapy,
- sustainability: eliminate travel for hospital visits.
The research activities will focus on data collection and AI training to define models able to assess exercise compliance and suggest corrections when needed. AR integration, through head-mounted AR displays, will mirror and visualise limb movement during exercises, providing a more effective recovery environment.
A Proof of Concept will be deployed to test system performance under real-world conditions, evaluating latency, reliability, usability…
The PoC pursues the following social impacts:
- to provide a more inclusive, sustainable, and cost-efficient rehabilitation,
- to reduce hospital congestion and environmental impact,
- to improve patient engagement through immersive AR experiences.
Social Challenges Addressed
- Healthcare Inequality: by expanding access to rural areas and for mobility-impaired patients.
- Workforce Shortages: Reduce clinician workload through automation.
- Data Privacy: Reinforces GDPR-compliant data management.
- Digital Inclusion: Promotes adoption and literacy in new digital health tools.
Many sectors would benefit from this framework
- Healthcare: for delivering telemedicine rehabilitation services,
- AI & Software: for motion tracking, deep learning and AI models,
- ICT & Telecommunications: for providing 6G, cloud and data infrastructure supporting the applications,
- Education & Research: for knowledge transfer and digital training.
