Medical care for spinal cord injured patients requires a collaborative effort of various medical specialities such as internal medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, physiatrics, orthopaedics, dermatology and urology. Specialised Spinal Units deliver this type of care which is expensive and limited to the first months after injury. There is a need to extend spinal unit care to the home of patients in order to reduce patient's length of stay in Spinal Units and to improve the quality of care after discharge. THRIVE has created a tele-rehabilitation protocol in which all aspects of medical care were integrated to ensure effective detection of medical complications over time and to start therapeutic action when needed.
Protocol efficacy has been demonstrated by comparing a selection of predefined medical outcomes in patients who received tele-rehabilitation and patients who received only standard home care in a randomised controlled trial. The protocol has been validated and adapted after the feedback from medical specialists, patients and caregivers. THRIVE has provided the proof of concept that telemedicine can be successfully applied to spinal cord injured patients. The THRIVE protocol is ready to be used by interested health institutions and offers new possibilities for the in-home care of patients with spinal cord injury.