HandTutor system allows for hands on therapy through tele-rehabilitation

In the February issue of Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine http://bit.ly/ev4mth Dr. Nancye M. Peel and her group from Centre for Research in Geriatric Medicine The University of Queensland discuss the implementation of telerehabilitation in older people. The barriers that need to be overcome include patient limitations, staff issues and the logistics of implementing the system. They comment that tele-rehabilitation is challenging because of the complexity of cases, with many requiring “hands-on” therapy.
The HandTutor system uses dedicated rehabilitation software that allows the virtual functional exercise tasks to be tailored to the patients movement ability. The tasks have been designed by physical and occupational therapists and are motivating to a wide range of patients sensory, motor and cognitive ability age and neurological or orthopedic indications.

In the January edition of Neurorehabil Neural Repair http://bit.ly/gEyIUb Dr. Murphy and her group from Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden discuss Kinematic Variables Quantifying Upper-Extremity Performance After Stroke During Reaching and Drinking From a Glass. In the trial, 19 chronic stroke patients (2 groups moderate and mild Fugl Meyer scores) and 19 healthy controls reached for a glass of water, took a sip, and placed it back on a table in a standardized way.

The group looked at kinematical parameters describing movement time, velocity, strategy and smoothness, interjoint coordination, and compensatory movements. They conclude that patient movement impairments such as range of movement, total movement time, and peak angular velocity of the elbow during the functional task discriminated between the two stroke groups.

The HandTutor and ArmTutor systems encourage intensive exercise practice through virtual functional tasks. The tasks have been designed to exercise individual and combinations of isolated movement parameters. This impaitrment oriented training has been shown to improve functional movement ability. www.HandTutor.com

Motor Imagery a rehab method for PD patients

In the January edition of Neurorehabil Neural Repair January Dr. Helsen and her group form Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Tervuursevest 101, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium study the Motor Imagery Ability in Patients With Early- and Mid-Stage Parkinson Disease. The group found that this practice method can also be successfully applied in the rehabilitation of patients with Parkinson disease (PD).
The HandTutor, ArmTutor and LegTutor system are used to encourage active exercise task practice in Parkinson's PD patients.

Pediatric Therapists Report Sensory Issues Commonly Mistaken for ADHD and treatment is the therapy and not medication

CHICAGO, Feb. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey from Pathways Awareness http://bit.ly/et8IgA of more than 500 pediatric occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech-language pathologists reports that more than two-thirds (68 percent) evaluated or treated children between 3 and 8 years old who had been previously misidentified with learning disabilities or behavioral issues. Of that two-thirds, an overwhelming majority (90 percent) reported they had seen children with deficits processing and integrating sensory information who had been misidentified as having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Members of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Pediatric Section of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and the Neuro-Developmental Treatment Association (NDTA) participated in the survey.
The HandTutor system is used by occupational therapists to treat development delay and the virtual functional tasks work on the childrens' motor sensory and cognitive movement impairments.