Tutors Can Shorten Recovery Period for TBI Patients

Bill Miston reports on Saturday, Jan. 28,2012 in Green Bay, Wisconsin that the recovery process from brain injury is usually long and slow.
It’s reported that each year more than 1.5 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury or TBI.That equals one person each 19 seconds. The leading cause is car accidents.
Cody Schneider, 22, of Oconto Falls is one of those statistics.
Cody spends three days a week at a rehabilitation center in Green Bay.
Right now he and 12 other brain injury rehabilitation program participants are working on just simple word problems.
The Medical Director of the Brain Injury Program at N.E.W. Curative Rehabilitation, Patricia Neuman, says each brain injury is different than another and there are a lot of unknowns.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), although having a long recovery period, can have that somewhat shortened by making use of the TUTOR system when movement of limbs is affected.
The newly developed HANDTUTOR, for example, has become a key system in neuromuscular rehabilitation for TBI and stroke victims and those recovering from spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s, MS, CP and other limb movement limitations. The HANDTUTOR is a hand therapy tool used by Occupational therapists. The HANDTUTOR, ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR and 3DTUTOR consist of wearable glove and braces that detect limb movements showing the patient how much active or assisted active movement they are actually accomplishing. These innovative devices implement an impairment based program with augmented motion feedback that encourages motor learning through intensive active exercises and movement practice. The rehabilitation software uses special rehabilitation games to set a new target for the patient to again move their limb in a normal fashion. The devices then measure the limb movement and give feedback on the success of the patient in this new objective. In this way the patient is given feedback that allows the patient to understand which effort is more successful in getting them to move their affected limb again. Subsequently the TUTOR system provides exercises that are challenging and motivating and allow for repetitive and intensive exercise practice.
The HANDTUTOR, ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR and 3DTUTOR are now part of the rehabilitation program of leading U.S. German, Italian, French, UK and other foreign hospitals. See WWW.HANDTUTOR.COM for more information.