Development of a take-home rehabilitation device that improves vision and balance in patients with injury to the balance organs


This project will develop a rehabilitation device based on a training technique we invented, which has been shown to significantly normalise the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) response in patients with vestibular organ lesions. Unlike all preceding methods, this technique is practical for vestibular rehabilitation and produces a significant increase in VOR response. We have achieved our first aim of building a rehabilitation device that can withstand the rigours of daily home use. Our current aim is to track VOR function, vision during head movement, standing balance, walking balance and quality of life in two randomised groups of patients with vestibular organ injuries over one week (our short-term clinical trial) and over one year (our long-term clinical trial). In one group, patients will use the rehabilitation device once daily for 15 minutes at home using our new training technique, whereas the other group will undergo the current best practise technique.