Lecture Title: Rehabilitation Technology Translation from Hospital to Community: 50 Years of Evolution & Beyond

Brief Description of Your Lecture:

Clinical rehabilitation has evolved over the past 50 years from conventional approaches to the current state of the art diagnostics and therapeutics complemented by rehabilitation technologies. This talk will first focus briefly on the global trends of clinical rehabilitation practices around the world then bring the audience through an accelerated memory lane a reflection of the world through local (Singapore) practice how rehabilitation clinical services have evolved in the past 50 years restoring function and improving lives of individuals requiring rehabilitation (eg. stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation) through research, validation and implementation of technologies including robotics, virtual reality, tele-rehabilitation etc. Emphasis will be made on the current trends of bringing rehabilitation care from hospital to community, focusing on restorative rehabilitation, developing cost-effective practical rehabilitation technologies and fostering close partnerships between local and international clinical institutions, academics and industry.

Short version of your biography:

Dr Loh Yong Joo is currently a senior consultant and head of department in Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) Rehabilitation Medicine and also Adjunct Associate Professor in Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technology University (NTU). His clinical sub-specialty is in neurorehabilitation managing patients with stroke, traumatic brain injury and other neurological conditions. His research and innovation interests are in rehabilitation technologies especially in the areas of virtual reality, robotics, wearable sensors and tele-rehabilitation. Currently, he manages the biggest and most established specialized rehabilitation inpatient centre (TTSH Rehabilitation Centre) in Singapore. TTSH Rehabilitation Centre, with a 50-year history of inpatient services this year, is the forerunner in the implementation of rehabilitation technologies in Singapore nearly 2 decades ago. The multi-disciplinary team consisting of rehabilitation physicians and therapists also actively involved in research and innovation and publish regularly in international peer review journals.  He is currently also the clinical head for Clinic for Advanced Rehabilitation Therapeutics (CART). CART is first outpatient specialist rehabilitation clinic in the region to incorporate robotics and virtual reality to help patients with complex disabilities and rehabilitation needs. It is a one-stop outpatient facility that provides multi-disciplinary care and goal-directed rehabilitation therapy programs.

He is currently also the Director of Clinical Innovations in TTSH Clinical Research and Innovation Office and provide leadership in TTSH clinical innovation focused areas including rehabilitation technologies. He actively enables co-development, validation and implementation of rehabilitation technologies from hospital to community and provide oversight and guidance of relevant rehabilitation technology projects including robotics, virtual reality, tele-rehabilitation, sensors, data integration etc.

He was previously also the Deputy Clinical Director of Rehabilitation Research Institute of Singapore (RRIS), the only rehabilitation research institute in Singapore (collaboration between National Healthcare Group, Nanyang Technology University and Agency for Science, Technology and Research) from January 2017 to December 2019 and strategizes rehabilitation research areas including data driven rehabilitation, precision rehabilitation, assistive technologies and connected rehabilitation technologies. He also assisted to establish international partnerships with China (Jianxiang Hospital Group), Hong Kong (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), Japan (Hyogo Rehabilitation Centre), South Korea (National Rehabilitation Centre, Descente Korea), Taiwan (Taipei Medical University), Thailand (Sirindhorn National Medical Rehabilitation Institute) and Australia (University of Newcastle)