ReviewHNO2020
Development of a smartphone app for neuromuscular facial training.
Review in HNO, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Smartphone-Based Grading and Rehabilitation in Patients With Facial Palsy Using Computer Vision: Prospective Validation Study.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2026Article
- Evidence summary: facial nerve rehabilitationtraining management for patients with peripheral facial paralysis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Review
- Beyond motor recovery: emerging perspectives in the management of peripheral facial palsy-a narrative review.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Review
- Tele-exercise mobile app for patients with facial paralysis: development and usability study.BMC neurology · 2025Article
- Towards Facial Gesture Recognition in Photographs of Patients with Facial Palsy.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSeveral 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.
objectiveThe 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
methodsA 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.
resultsAn 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.
conclusionApp-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.
Indexed as
Identifiers
32638059What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.