Stroke is a major cause of adult disability in developed
countries and it totals about 16 million new first stroke events
per year [1]. Given such increasing figures, the cost of stroke
rehabilitation is expected to saturate National Health Service
Providers which are expected to be forced to shorten the
duration of the rehabilitation support. However, exercising
should be continued also outside the hospital to avoid losing
the benefits of hospital rehabilitation and to stabilize psychophysical
conditions. Moreover, accumulating evidence suggests
that intensive rehabilitation allows recovering function
also months after the stroke event [2]. This requires daily
rehabilitation sessions that presently have to be carried out
in specialized centers, with the support of therapists. Unfortunately,
only few patients can afford such an option as it is often
not supported by public health systems. This has an enormous
socio-economic impact also on the patients families who often
feel left alone by the health service providers [3] and patients
who should continue the therapy outside the hospital actually
drop out mostly due to high costs. But even when the costs
were covered, many patients lack the necessary motivation to
continue training for their recovery.