Parkinson’s Patients Benefit from HandTutor and ArmTutor

Alexander Michael Crizzle, MPH and Ian J Newhouse, PhD writing for the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine
ask whether physical exercise is beneficial for persons with Parkinson’s disease?
They reviewed existing studies evaluating the effectiveness of physical exercise on mortality, mobility, strength, balance, and activities of daily living (ADL) for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.
Only patients with PD were included in the intervention study. The intervention included some form of physical or therapeutic exercise after which the effects of the physical exercise were evaluated.
Outcomes in the studies were measured in terms of physical improvements in patients with PD, such as improved axial rotation, functional reach, flexibility, balance, muscle strength, short-step gait, and mobility. All studies reviewed show that exercise improves overall performance in PD patients. Improvements were measured using standardized tests and other measurement scales.
The results of the research support the hypothesis that patients with PD improve their physical performance and activities of daily living through exercise.
The TUTOR system was developed to afford Parkinson’s patients a comfortable and challenging set of exercises that could return at least a modicum of normal movement to their affected limbs.
The HANDTUTOR and its sister devices (ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR, 3DTUTOR) have become a key system in neuromuscular rehabilitation for Parkinson’s patients as well as those suffering from stroke,brain and spinal injuries, MS, CP and other limb movement limitations. These innovative devices implement an impairment based program with augmented motion feedback that encourages motor learning through intensive active exercises and movement practice.
The HANDTUTOR, ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR, 3DTUTOR consist of a wearable glove or braces that detect limb mobility showing the patient how much active or assisted active movement he is actually doing. The rehabilitation software uses special rehabilitation games to set a new target for this movement in terms of the patient’s ability to move his limb. The devices then measure the limb mobility and give feedback on the success of the patient in trying to gain this new movement objective. In this way the patient is given feedback that allows him to understand which effort is more successful. 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 hospital rehabilitation clinics. See WWW.HANDTUTOR.COM for more information.