Yeah for Australians. You'll have to go to the link to see a non-understandable picture of what it looks like. Have your therapist report back to you on its feasibility.
http://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/18497
SMART Arm Pty Ltd, the latest start-up enterprise from leading
Australian university commercialisation company UniQuest, has secured
investment from Townsville Mackay Medicare Local (TMML) to launch an
innovative device for improving recovery outcomes for people who have
experienced stroke and/or brain injury.
The Sensory-Motor Active
Rehabilitation Training (SMART) Arm is a portable, non-robotic
technology that enables stroke survivors with upper limb weakness to
drive their own rehabilitation.
With feedback on performance via
an interactive computer program and incremental increases in load and
reaching range, the SMART Arm reduces the degrees of freedom to be
controlled and provides a goal for movement. For stroke survivors with
very severe weakness, it can also be used with outcome-triggered
electrical stimulation to augment full-range reaching.
UniQuest
Managing Director, David Henderson, said SMART Arm Pty Ltd was formed to
further develop, manufacture and market the technology, which
originated from multi-disciplinary research at two Queensland
universities.
“SMART Arm the company is the culmination of more
than eight years of stroke rehabilitation research, design and testing
at James Cook University (JCU) and The University of Queensland (UQ),”
Mr Henderson explained.
“The SMART Arm technology was developed
by researchers across a number of disciplines, including physiotherapy,
neuroscience and engineering. We now have TMML on board, bringing to the
venture its commercial and community health acumen and access to
rehabilitation clinic and networks worldwide.
“This partnership
demonstrates how collaborations between universities, research
disciplines, and industry can translate into real and practical benefits
for the wider community,” Mr Henderson said.
While details of
the agreement between SMART Arm Pty Ltd shareholders and TMML remain
commercial-in-confidence, the transaction is expected to accelerate the
device’s manufacture so units could be available for distribution within
12 months.
Led by Dr Ruth Barker, an Adjunct Senior Lecturer
from JCU’s School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Sciences, the team which developed the SMART Arm included UQ
researchers Professor Richard Carson (Human Movement Studies), Associate
Professor Sandy Brauer (Physiotherapy), Dr David Lloyd (Human Movement
Studies) and Kate Hayward (Physiotherapy PhD student).
The
research team has demonstrated that a program of SMART Arm training
improved arm function, arm muscle activation and neural plasticity in
people with chronic stroke, with the last finding published in the July
2012 issue of Experimental Brain Research.
“We are thrilled to have a Queensland company like TMML back our innovation,” said Dr Barker.
“Stroke
is the leading cause of severe long term disability in the Western
world. Every year, over three million stroke survivors try to regain use
of their upper limbs. SMART Arm is one of the few interventions shown
to result in positive changes in neural plasticity in people with
chronic stroke, so we’re very keen to see the device become available to
as many as possible, as soon as possible,” Dr Barker said.
TMML
chairman, Dr Kevin Arlett, said TMML recognised the potential for SMART
Arm to address a major unmet need in the allied health care industry.
“We’re proud to be partnering with Dr Barker and her team to launch this technology commercially,” Dr Arlett said.
“The
SMART Arm will make a huge difference to stroke survivor outcomes
because it’s interactive and it allows patients to practise
independently and direct their own rehabilitation. And, because it’s
small enough to be used for clinical inpatient and outpatient settings
as well as in rehabilitation services, nursing homes and local area
health services, more people will benefit.”
Dr Barker recently
demonstrated the SMART Arm device at a workshop on driving neural
plasticity that was associated with this year’s International Society
for Electrophysiology and Kinesiology Congress (ISEK2012).
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