Rehabilitation
New York Times Examines Limited Options For Disabled Children Who Reach Age 18 - The New York Times on Wednesday examined how as “medical advances have allowed patients who might have died as children to survive into adulthood, the patients are falling into a void in a health care system that has yet to develop institutions for the young and ‘medically fragile.
Medicare Fee Cuts Could Devastate Rehabilitation Services, Physical Therapists Warn Congress - Pending cuts to the Medicare physician fee schedule could severely hamper the ability of physical therapists to serve the rehabilitation needs of seniors and people with disabilities, driving up overall costs while decreasing quality of care, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and its Private Practice Section. In
Rehab For Stroke Survivors - Walking therapy for stroke survivors is significantly more effective when conducted by a physical therapist instead of a robot, according a small study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.Research suggests that, for a patient who has neurological damage from stroke or spinal cord injury, moving the legs in a way that mimics walking on a treadmill can facilitate walking recovery.
Physical Therapist Stresses Funding For Falls Prevention At National Safety Council Briefing - The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has joined forces with a national coalition of health and consumer groups to advocate for funding for falls prevention initiatives, including the recently enacted Safety of Seniors Act.
First Waterproof MP3 Player To Use Bone Conduction Technology For Highest Quality Underwater Sound, Released By Finis, Inc. - In 2004 Finis, Inc., the leading innovator of competitive aquatictraining products, released the groundbreaking waterproof SwiMP3 playerfor swimmers, triathletes, surfers, synchronized swimmers and anyoneinvolved in water activities. More recently, in the spring of 2007 Finisintroduced the SwiMP3 V2.
Marathon Man Nottingham Bi-Lateral Amputee 117 Miles Over Six Weeks On State Of The Art Blades - The Limbless Association had two runners in this year’s London Marathon, both of whom successfully completed the 26.2 mile course. Andrew Palmer, a Prosthetic Engineer from Cardiff DSC and a Left Below Knee amputee and “Member” of the Limbless Association, finished in 3hrs 23 minutes, raising £2,132.50.
Government Launches Guidance To Assist In Support For Self Care, UK - Health Minister Ivan Lewis announced the introduction of seven Common Core Principles to Support Self Care, designed to help health and social care staff support people to live independently, stay healthy and make the most of their lives by managing their conditions.
One In Four Disabled Seniors Use Risky Or Ineffective Medicines, USA - Roughly a quarter of Americans with disabilities age 65 and older reported using at least one prescription drug deemed inappropriate for persons his or her age, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Only about half as many (13 percent) of elderly people without disabilities used inappropriate drugs, according to the analysis of 2004 data. Thirty-three medications are regarded as inappropriate for people 65 and older.
Boxing Legend Frank Bruno To Honour Spinal Injury Award Winners, London - Boxing legend Frank Bruno MBE is to attend the spinal injury charity REGAIN’s prestigious Sports Award Luncheon on Friday 30 May 2008. The former heavyweight champion will join other sports personalities and tetraplegic men and women from across the UK for REGAIN’s seventh awards lunch at The Four Seasons Hotel in Park Lane, London.
Physical Therapists Unite To Support The Uninsured - The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is urging residents across the country to contact their legislators and demand solutions to the problem of the nation’s uninsured during “Cover the Uninsured Week,” April 27-May 3. APTA is a supporting organization of the observance, designed to raise awareness of the plight of more than 47 million uninsured Americans - and the effect it is having on the country’s health care system.
CMS Announces Rule That Would Lower Payments To Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities - A rule released by CMS on Monday would reduce funding for inpatient rehabilitation facilities by about $20 million in fiscal year 2009, CQ HealthBeat reports. The reduction is required by legislation that Congress approved last year to prevent a scheduled cut to Medicare physician payments and reauthorize SCHIP through March 2009.
New Prosthetic Hand Being Tested: Each Finger Can Be Moved Separately - A new prosthetic hand is being tested at the Orthopedic University Hospital in Heidelberg / Grip function almost like a natural handIt can hold a credit card, use a keyboard with the index finger, and lift a bag weighing up to 20 kg - the world’s first commercially available pros-thetic hand that can move each finger separately and has an astounding range of grip configurations.
New Video Targets Those Interested In Physical Therapy Careers - People interested in a career in physical therapy can now view an 11-minute video titled “You Can Be Me” on the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA’s) Web page at http://www.beapt.org.
Pediatric Prosthetics Inc. Announces Recent Downward Trends In Health Insurance Reimbursements For Pediatric Prostheses - The Vice President of Pediatric Prosthetics Inc. (OTCBB:PDPR), Kenneth Bean stated : “We founded Pediatric Prosthetics Inc. to better serve the children with a limb-loss across the country and build a strong national company on behalf of our shareholders.
Young Macho Men With Serious Injuries Often Abuse Alcohol - Men with serious injuries, such as traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury, must deal with a range of emotions. If these men have strong traditional masculine ideas and abuse alcohol, it becomes even more difficult to help them heal and come to terms with their emotions and situations.
Welch Healthcare & Retirement Group Adopts Post-Acute Care Industry’s First Online System For Centralized Admissions - Patient Placement Systems announced that Welch Healthcare & Retirement Group of Norwell, Mass., has deployed the Referral Management System Enterprise Edition , marking the first use of dedicated online referral management for centralized admissions in the post-acute care industry.
Arcadia’s Physical Therapy Program Moves Up To 7th In Nation In U.S. News - U.S. News & World Report ranked Arcadia University’s Physical Therapy program 7th in the nation among the more than 200 graduate PT programs. “This new ranking reflects on the quality of our faculty and the students in the physical therapist program! It means so much to me that the vibrancy, intellectual capacity and hard work of our faculty members were recognized by our peers,” says Dr. Rebecca L Craik, Professor and Chair of the Department of Physical Therapy.
Starting Shot For The Particle Therapy Center Of The University Clinic Of Schleswig-Holstein - The University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein (UC S-H) commissioned a consortium of bidders including Siemens, Bilfinger Berger and HSG Technischer Service with the construction and operation of the first particle therapy center (PTC) in Northern Germany. With overall costs of roughly 250 million EUR, this represents the largest public private partnership (PPP) project ever launched in the German healthcare sector.
Endless Pools Inc & National Multiple Sclerosis Society Fight Back Against MS - Unique Swimming Pools Promote Rehabilitation Through Aquatic Therapy - Multiple Sclerosis is a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. As nerve fiber is destroyed and damaged from the disease, even the most common every day tasks can be a chore. But with regular aquatic therapy, MS sufferers can strengthen weakened muscles and improve stamina and balance. The unique qualities of water provide exceptional benefits to people with MS, allowing them to move in ways they may not be able to on land.
Robotic Helper Fetches Objects With Just A Point And A Click - Robots are fluent in their native language of 1 and 0 absolutes but struggle to grasp the nuances and imprecise nature of human language. While scientists are making slow, incremental progress in their quest to create a robot that responds to speech, gestures and body language, a more straightforward method of communication may help robots find their way into homes sooner.
NICE Launch Two More New Guides To Support Effective Commissioning Of Services, UK - The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has today (20 March 2008) published a further two new commissioning guides to help the NHS in England effectively commission evidence-based care for patients.
Painful Spine Fractures Which Affect Millions Of Older Adults With Osteoporosis Can Be Fixed Without Major Surgery - Advanced age, asthma, diabetes, emphysema, menopause, chronic steroid use and rheumatoid arthritis are all risk factors for osteoporosis. The resultant weakening of bones can lead to compression fractures of the spine causing severe pain, deformity, loss of height, immobilization, and in some cases, failure to thrive. According to estimated figures from the National Osteoporosis Foundation, the disease was responsible for 547,000 vertebral fractures in 2005.
Interface Bridging Mind And Body: The Wiimote - The Nintendo Wii is an immensely popular source of videogame entertainment, but more recently, it has been adapted for a number of different uses, such as a tool for physical therapy and as a form of exercise for geriatrics. New research from the University of Memphis, published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, has found another use: psychological experimentation.
Complex Interventions For Elderly People Can Be Beneficial - According to a meta-analysis published in The Lancet,elderly people can improve physical function and live moreindependently if provided with complex interventions such as preventivehome visits and community-based care after hospital discharge. Thestudy of over 90,000 elderly people also led authors to conclude thatwell-developed services for the elderly should not be withdrawn.
Increased Strokes Linked With China’s Economic Prosperity - A side effect of economic prosperity may be an increased risk of the most common type of strokes, researchers from China report in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.And this finding should be regarded as “an opportunity for health policy leaders to react” according to an accompanying editorial.In the study, the rate of blood clot-caused (ischemic) strokes in China increased by almost 9 percent per year between 1984 and 2004.
