Rehabilitation & Physical Therapy

Using a device that supplies humidified oxygen is more effective than a technique that reduces positive airway pressure delivered to the lungs to wean patients from a ventilator to breathe on their own, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health. The research...

Digital devices can provide games, e-books, and learning apps to everyone who can operate them. But what if you can't work even the easiest of controls? Engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, are working with children who have limited mobility that makes it difficult for them to perform...

A team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh (UP) School of Medicine and UPMC (Medical Center) are working with a woman with longstanding quadriplegia to accomplish "ordinary" tasks that once seemed impossible. Together, they have demonstrated, for the first time, that a person with...

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, somewhere between 236,000 to 327,000 people in the US are living with serious spinal cord injuries. About 155,000 have paraplegia. But being able to stand and walk again is something that may someday come to be realized, say engineers at the...

A technology derived from NASA’s Robonaut 2 project could help astronauts stay fit in space and may someday aid paraplegics in walking on Earth. Working with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL, and engineers from Oceaneering Space Systems of Houston, NASA...

Biologists at Stanford University, Stanford, CA, pursuing a model for studying heat dissipation, have created a glove that can rapidly cool down athletes’ core temperatures and dramatically improve exercise recovery and performance. A version of the heat-extraction glove is currently nearing...

Electrical and computer engineers at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, are developing a technology to predict when a person might fall. They created a small prototype wireless sensor that analyzes posture and gait, and sends an alert when there is a break in routine. The alert could signal muscle or vision changes, or may...

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional economic organization consisting of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam is developing a combined regulatory system for medical devices to cover all member countries. The ASEAN Medical...

Thousands of veterans return to the U.S. with limb amputations, and for many, standard prosthetics are not an option due to skin issues or short remaining-limb length. These amputees require something other than the typical socket-type attachment systems. Researchers and surgeons from the University of Utah and...

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) is soliciting ground-based, analog definition and flight definition proposals. NSBRI is soliciting proposals for six of its seven research teams. Topic areas include smart medical systems and technology to refine and validate plug-and-play sensor and...

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston, MA, received a $2.6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a smart suit that could improve field soldiers’ physical endurance.

The Beach Boys sang about “Good Vibrations,” but a new wireless, musical glove, created by researchers at Georgia Tech, uses vibrations for the greater good, to help restore sensation and motor skills in people with paralyzing spinal cord injuries that resulted in limited feeling or movement...

Medical Design Briefs kicked off 2012 with a feature on neuromodulation and its current and future applications, which range from the therapeutic benefits of deep brain stimulation, to artificial pacemakers. Take a look at the full article here, and you'll quickly see why neuromodulation offers exciting...

Researchers from the University of Arizona have produced a robotic set of legs that is believed to be the first to fully model walking in a biologically accurate manner. The biological accuracy of the robot could someday help researchers understand how to help spinal-cord-injury patients recover...

Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, affects millions of Americans. Implantable sensor technology and custom-designed cartilage scaffolding systems could greatly improve quality of life for these patients. Researchers at the University of Arizona and three other universities around the world are...

Migraine pain sits at the upper end of the typical pain scale – an angry-red section often labeled “severe.” At this intensity, pain is debilitating. Yet many sufferers do not get relief from – or cannot tolerate – over-the-counter and commonly prescribed pain medications. Recently, a team...

Cervical collars were first developed during the Vietnam War to stabilize the heads and necks of accident victims, but research has shown that this device may be overdue for an update. Students at Rice University tested a currently used cervical collar and found that when a patient's neck is...

Neurofeedback — a type of biofeedback in which a person becomes aware of the physiological state of their body, and can manipulate and control this at will — has been proven to be an effective form of therapy for a variety of conditions, such as migraine, epileptic seizures, and ADHD. For...