Smart training aids rehabilitation

Seventy-year-old Mr Lau has been experiencing difficulty walking ever since he suffered a stroke last year. After having another stroke earlier this year, he is currently participating in the Pok Oi Hospital “Jockey Club Smart Geriatric Day Hospital Project”, which enables patients to undergo physiotherapy and occupational therapy at home or in their residential care homes for the elderly as part of their rehabilitation.

Making progress: Mr Lau does therapeutic exercises twice a day at the care home to accelerate his recovery after suffering from strokes last year and this year. Image source: www.news.gov.hk

“I do exercises in the morning and afternoon,” he said. “I am quite hardworking because I want to recover soon. I have made progress with some of the activities, such as the dressing exercise, which trains my hand to lift higher. I used to feel pain when moving my right hand, but now I do not.”

He was also enthusiastic about a hiking routine that has enhanced his mobility. “At first, I needed to rest partway through, but now I can complete the entire route at once.”

Greater convenience

The programme allows elderly residents to undergo rehabilitation in familiar surroundings without the need for lengthy and tiring hospital trips. Lydia Au, a manager at the care home where Mr Lau resides, said the initiative helps residents to stay active and engaged during recovery.

“With the tablet provided by the hospital, they can now do the exercises any time they want and complete them on their own, which builds their confidence and sense of achievement. The programme was launched after an assessment confirmed our care home environment was suitable.”

More convenient: Lydia Au, a manager at the care home where Mr Lau resides, explains that tele‑rehabilitation reduces the need for care home residents to undertake lengthy and tiring trips to hospital. Image source: www.news.gov.hk

Smart technologies

Pok Oi Hospital launched the “Jockey Club Smart Geriatric Day Hospital Project” with $14 million in funding from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, after being included on the Chief Executive’s Community Project List.

The funding supports the adoption of a smart training model that incorporates virtual reality, augmented reality and tele-rehabilitation technologies at the facility’s geriatric day hospital. The approach allows patients to train remotely without the need for frequent hospital visits.

Patients’ performance data are uploaded to a digital platform, enabling healthcare professionals to monitor progress and design personalised rehabilitation plans. Since the project was launched last year, approximately 350 patients have benefited, with the number of patients treated increasing by more than 20% year on year.

Accelerated recovery: Pok Oi Hospital Chief of Service of Department of Medicine & Geriatrics Dr Tony Chan believes the programme can improve various functions in elderly patients and restore their ability to carry out daily activities. Image source: www.news.gov.hk

Fewer visits

Pok Oi Hospital Chief of Service of Department of Medicine & Geriatrics Dr Tony Chan said the programme mainly benefits elderly patients who experience mobility issues after hospitalisation.

“Our target patients include those recovering from stroke, hip fracture or dementia because they all require very intensive training.”

Previously, patients would undergo on-site training twice weekly for eight weeks, for a total of 16 hospital sessions. Under the new arrangement, they now only need to visit the hospital once a week from the fifth week onwards.

“Through these exercises, we hope to help them improve their mobility and cardiopulmonary function, as well as restore their ability to carry out daily activities independently.”

To make rehabilitation more enjoyable, cultural elements have been integrated into the exercises. “For example, some games feature mahjong or cartoon backgrounds of the Big Buddha on Lantau Island and the Tsing Ma Bridge to make the training sessions more interesting and engaging for elderly participants.”

Performance analysis: Lingnan University School of Graduates Studies Senior Lecturer Chloe Siu says the smart training model achieves better results than traditional rehabilitation methods in several aspects. Image source: www.news.gov.hk

Positive results

To evaluate the programme’s effectiveness, Pok Oi Hospital has collaborated with Lingnan University on a comprehensive study. Explaining its findings, Lingnan University School of Graduates Studies Senior Lecturer Chloe Siu said innovative tele-rehabilitation training achieves better results than traditional methods in several aspects.

“Older adults who joined the six-metre walking test walked significantly faster than those undergoing conventional therapy,” she said. In occupational therapy, meanwhile, patients showed clear improvements in hand fine motor functions and cognitive functions, as well as Instrumental Activities of Daily Living.

Interactive technology: The virtual reality system simulates everyday situations, allowing patients to refamiliarise themselves with daily activities in a safe and controlled environment. Image source: www.news.gov.hk

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is heading into a challenging reelection bid as she continues to suffer fallout from last year’s devastating wildfire and ongoing criticism of City Hall on issues from street paving to homelessness.

The deadline is Saturday for candidates to enter the contest ahead of the June 2 primary election. Bass — a first-term Democrat and the first Black woman to hold the post — already is facing challenges from tech entrepreneur and nonprofit founder Adam Miller; reality television personality Spencer Pratt, who lost his home to the deadly Palisades Fire; and community organizer Rae Huang. A late entry was city council member Nithya Raman, a onetime Bass supporter who will now be trying to oust her.

Although the contest is officially nonpartisan, it is breaking along sharp political lines.

Pratt is a Republican in a heavily Democratic city who was endorsed by Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for governor, and Richard Grenell, an ally of President Donald Trump. Raman was the first council member elected with the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America. Huang has positioned herself to the political left of Bass, who while in the U.S. House was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Bass greeted Raman to the race with a pointed jab: “The last thing Los Angeles needs is a politician who opposed cleaning up homeless encampments and efforts to make our city safer,” Bass campaign adviser Douglas Herman said in a statement.

The race is unfolding at an unsettled time for the city of nearly 4 million.

Complaints about the cost of living — whether for rent, taxes or groceries — are a constant refrain. Dirty, pocked streets and sidewalks abound. Hollywood jobs have been decamping for years for more affordable locales.

Ongoing Trump administration immigration raids have shaken the city. Despite studies showing a slight decline in the homeless population, encampments remain commonplace. And recovery from the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed much of the tony seaside neighborhood in January 2025, continues at a pace that some say is too slow.

In an upbeat speech this month laying out her vision for the city's future, Bass talked of the upcoming 2028 Olympics in the city and plans to spruce up busy thoroughfares.

“Even in this difficult chapter in our history, great events, moments of unity, are possible,” Bass said. “And they are coming.”

Los Angeles-based Democratic consultant Bill Carrick sees the race as wide-open. Under California's primary rules, all candidates appear on the same ballot and the top two finishers advance to the November general election — a system that can lead to unpredictable outcomes. A candidate can win the mayoralty outright by capturing more than 50% of the primary vote, but that appears unlikely with a large field that is also expected to include a string of little-known contenders.

Voters are “kind of unhappy with city government, and I think the Palisades Fire certainly contributed enormously with that feeling,” Carrick said.

The mayor, who was on a trip to Ghana as part of a presidential delegation when the fire began raging through the Palisades neighborhood, has been on the defensive for her actions during and after the blaze.

The Los Angeles Times has published a series of reports, based on public records requests, showing that drafts of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report included deletions and revisions intended to soften the failures of city and department officials.

This week Bass’ office forcefully denied allegations in a Times story, based on anonymous, secondhand sources, that she pushed for changes in the report before publication to shield City Hall from potential legal action. She told reporters that the account was “completely fabricated.”

Officials have said the deadly blaze was ignited by remnants of a Jan. 1 fire that continued to smolder underground. In October, a 29-year-old man was arrested and charged with sparking the earlier fire. The LAFD has faced scrutiny over whether it properly extinguished the New Year’s Day blaze.

On his website, Pratt — who rose to reality-TV fame alongside his wife, Heidi Montag, on “The Hills” — said he watched his home burn “because the system failed us.”

“We don’t need more government programs,” Pratt added. “We need common sense, accountability, and a mayor that shows up for everyone.”

Miller, a Democrat running as an outsider with the ability to invest in his own campaign, poses a new challenge for Bass, who defeated billionaire Rick Caruso in her 2022 election. Miller founded Cornerstone OnDemand, a global education company, and later cofounded the Better Angels nonprofit to address homelessness.

“Los Angeles has extraordinary potential but too often City Hall hasn’t been there for the people who call it home,” Miller said in a statement.

Bass also avoided two potential strong opponents in the contest.

Caruso decided not to run again after months of equivocation, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath announced late Friday that she, too, would not enter the race. Both have been outspoken critics of the mayor's handling of homelessness and the fire and were widely seen as possible contenders.

“It's clear you want a different kind of leadership and you are ready to see change in your city,” Horvath said in a video posted on the social platform X, but she added that her work on the county board was not finished.

FILE - A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - Mayor Karen Bass speaks at a vigil, June 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)