Play and get healthy
MIRA REHAB
Cluj-Napoca | Romania
Can technology change the world for the better? Of course! And Mira Rehab is one of the best examples of it.
It started with four of us – says Ovidiu Dragan-. We created a software which can be used for rehabilitation, for example when you get injured, you have neurologic problems or problems related with aging. In all those cases you can use Mira, both in the clinic and at home. All you need is the software. Using a sensor the computer can see your movement and this allows you to play different kinds of games designed to any kind of rehabilitation you need.
For users it is just a computer game in which through moving arms and hands they accomplish tasks and gain points. For the physiotherapists is the way to encourage patients to exercise and measure their progress. Analyzing the data from the software, physiotherapists see exactly how the patient did the task, with how many mistakes, what is the progress. Physiotherapists can also control the difficulty level and adjust it to the need of the patient.
Children, but even elder people, really love it. They forget they are exercising, as they focus on the game. We have a lot of movies and tutorials on youtube, showing how exactly the program works. For us the biggest success is that people really use it and they improve their health without realizing the effort.
But the software is not the only social side of Mira activity.
We wanted to help those kids who don’t have money to go to regular rehabilitation. Kids with neurological problems should do 2-3 sessions per week. Even an average family cannot afford it, considering also the operations, visiting other countries for the treatment. At the beginning we just wanted to offer Mira to those who don’t have enough money for other rehabilitations. But then we realize that Mira is not enough. We hired specialists, which work with children using both classical methods and our software. Some children come for free, others, which can afford it, donate money to support the project.
It’s not easy, though, as the cost, including rent, salaries and so on are much higher than donations. Mira tries to find different ways to cover the gap and develop further. They have many ideas on how to grow and help even more people.
We want to extend our clinic, help more and more children. We want to reach those around Cluj-Napoca, which for now are not able to join us because of transportation. We want to buy a car, give them Mira software to use at home and hire a mobile team of physiotherapists, who will visit them regularly directly in the villages. If they can’t come to us, we will come to them.
More about Mira Rehab: mirarehab.com