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Development of a smartphone app for neuromuscular facial training

Entwicklung einer Smartphone-App für neuromuskuläres Fazialistraining

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Abstract

Background

Several studies have demonstrated a significant benefit of neuromuscular facial training in the rehabilitation of patients with facial palsy. However, printed instructions for home training are often not of optimum quality and associated with low adherence to therapy. Professional guidance, e.g., by occupational therapists, is regarded as being of high quality, but is associated with a high cost burden, particularly in chronic forms of disease.

Objective

The idea to develop a smartphone app for facial training arose from the above-described situation. The aim was to provide structured exercises for the mimic muscles in the sense of neuromuscular training with visual feedback via the front camera of the device.

Materials and methods

A native app architecture in iOS was chosen to implement the graphical and content-related concept. In the Apple Xcode (Apple, Cupertino, CA, US) development environment, the app’s code was written in the Swift programming language (Apple) and the graphical user interface was created.

Results

An app prototype was implemented that provides step-by-step instructions on selected mimic exercises via animated smileys. The duration and speed of the exercise can be varied within a limited range. In the development environment, the correct functionality of both physical and virtual devices was successfully tested.

Conclusion

App-based facial training offers attractive opportunities to motivate patients for improved adherence to treatment, which could hypothetically lead to a better outcome. Evaluation of this question is planned in a clinical trial after completion of the development.

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Code availability

The program code used in this study is available upon reasoned request from the respective author. This code may then only be used for educational and research purposes. Any commercial use, including distribution, sale, lease, license or other transfer of the code to third parties is prohibited.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Würzburg, Josef-Schneider-Straße 11, 97080, Würzburg, Germany

    J. Taeger, S. Bischoff, R. Hagen & K. Rak

Authors
  1. J. Taeger
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  2. S. Bischoff
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  3. R. Hagen
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  4. K. Rak
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Taeger.

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Conflict of interest

J. Taeger, S. Bischoff, R. Hagen and K. Rak declare that they have no competing interests.

This article does not include studies in humans or animals.

The supplement containing this article is not sponsored by industry.

Additional information

The German version of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1007/s00106-020-00879-0.

Johannes Taeger, Würzburg, with the working group R. Hagen, K. Rak, Würzburg, received the Jochen Werner Innovation Prize 2019 for their work “Development of an iOS-app for facial exercises in terms of neuromuscular training for patients with facial paresis” at the 90th annual meeting of the DGHNO KHC in Berlin.

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Taeger, J., Bischoff, S., Hagen, R. et al. Development of a smartphone app for neuromuscular facial training. HNO 68 (Suppl 2), 79–85 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00106-020-00880-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00106-020-00880-7

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