Clinical assessment of the HELLODOC tele-rehabilitation service.

Within the EU project HELLODOC, the clinical effectiveness was investigated of the home care activity desk (H-CAD). Eighty-one patients with chronic stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and multiple sclerosis (MS) were recruited; 50 out of 81 received 1 month of H-CAD intervention, with one training session a day lasting 30 minutes for 5 days a week. The overall satisfaction of both patients and therapists was high.

Tele-rehabilitation and e-learning: the HELLODOC educational experience.

A web-based learning activity in the field of tele-rehabilitation was conducted by Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), the Italian National Institute of Health, within the EU project HELLODOC. The activity aimed at training professionals to effectively manage the tele-rehabilitation service. ISS adapted the Moodle e-learning platform and implemented the problem-based learning (PBL) methodology.

Intermittent versus continuous clodronate administration in postmenopausal women with low bone mass.

The aim of the study was to compare the effects on bone mass and turnover of continuous vs. intermittent clodronate administration on 120 postmenopausal women (average age 61 years) with low bone mass (femoral neck bone mineral density [BMD] of at least -1 SD or more, T-score), with another 30 women as a control group. Participants were given 1800 mg of clodronate every 6 months over 2 years using different treatment patterns: a) two continuous regimens, consisting of a daily oral dose of 400 mg or 100 mg every 10 days by intramuscular injection, the latter being considered continuous because the interval between injections is shorter than the time employed by each bone remodelling unit to complete the resorption phase of a remodelling cycle; and b) two intermittent regimens, consisting of 1800 mg every 6 months administered either as a single 18-h intravenous infusion or by separate infusions of 300 mg over 6 consecutive days.