CleveMed Blogs

This won’t quite be a 140-character-tweet, but I will make an attempt at brevity in honor of Twitter. In case you didn’t already know, CleveMed is on Twitter and a-tweetin’! Follow CleveMed on Twitter (http://twitter.com/CleveMed) and see updates on our products, services, conferences & tradeshows, links to news articles, etc.

But you’ll also see tweets like this one:

Or this:

Moral of my story:
Follow CleveMed on Twitter. You’ll also find us on other online communities like Facebook (CleveMed Movement), Facebook (CleveMed Sleep), LinkedIn and YouTube. PS: Here’s a link to “All You Need to Know to Twitter” from the NY Times.

CleveMed is currently working with the Center for Neurological Restoration at the Cleveland Clinic to monitor motor symptoms during and after Deep Brain Stimulation surgery. To learn more about DBS, click here. Currently, motor symptoms are evaluated during multiple times during DBS surgery to determine if the optimal electrode placement has been determined. Kinesia ™ is being used to evaluate if better methods are available for measuring these symptoms to decrease the duration of the surgery, which can last for hours while the patient is fully conscious, and increase patient comfort. One potential application is to have the patient wear the device while their motor symptoms are being evaluated. The output of Kinesia could then be used as an objective measure from which to base the movement of the electrode.

In addition to the evaluations performed during the surgery, patients need to return to the clinic post surgery to optimize the stimulator settings once the surgical location is completely healed. Here, a nurse or clinician will evaluate the motor symptoms and adjust parameters of the stimulator such as frequency, amplitude and pulse width. As the settings are adjusted, the patient completes an upper extremity evaluation and this is sometimes completed multiple times, which can result in fatigue and therefore, not the most appropriate settings. Here, Kinesia can be worn by the patient while they complete these exams and the output of the device can be correlated to the most optimal stimulator settings. This can decrease the length of time of the visit, as well as increase patient comfort. If the device is able to suggest actual setting parameters, stimulator tuning can be completed in a typical clinician’s office instead of having the patient go to specialty movement disorder centers.

CleveMed will be attending and exhibiting at the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society’s (GCMAS) 14th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado. The meeting will be taking place March 9-14.

GCMAS is a society that is made up of orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, developmental pediatricians, physiatrists, physical and occupational therapists, kinesiologists, engineers and many others who are interested in human movement. The professional members of GCMAS are all interested in the advancement of scientific knowledge of gait and human movement analysis in both research and clinical settings.

CleveMed will be showcasing KinetiSense, a compact, lightweight, wireless system for measuring motion and electrical muscle activity (EMG). KinetiSense utilizes a small subject worn device that measures three degrees of linear acceleration and three degrees of angular velocity with accelerometers and gyroscopes. The device also has the option of two channels of EMG for a total of eight channels of data. KinetiSense can communicate in real time with a PC via a Bluetooth^™ radio link or data can be stored in memory. The small size and wireless aspect of the device make the system suitable for a number of research applications, including gait measurement, biomechanics, rehabilitation and any other situation in which movement monitoring and analysis is desired.

A second product on display will be BioCapture, a wireless data acquisition and research system. BioCapture uses the BioRadio 150, a wireless 12 channel programmable physiological monitor. The user can measure up to 8 channels of electrical muscle activity (EMG) on the available programmable inputs. Data is then sent in real time to a PC and displayed and stored using the BioCapture software interface. LabVIEW^™ and MATLAB^® drivers allow the user to write customized interfaces around the BioRadio 150 hardware for real-time acquisition or post processing. Data is also saved in standard ASCII file format for easy import into third party packages, making the system appropriate for a number of custom research applications.

We are working on initiating a Wellness Program using information gathered from United Healthcare, COSE, and Wellness Evolution. A survey will be given to participants with a list of topics that they are interested in. After the results are in, the topics with the most consensus will be discussed first, then the rest, and so on. This will be a team focused program emphasizing on what people like to do.

Carole Nittskoff, Chief Administrator for CleveMed, is on a task force with Cleveland State University and other local schools working on the “New Pathway Program.” This program’s primary focus is to give feedback to experiential learners and work with high school and college students to give them a much clearer view on the workplace. It will also assist them with preparedness and show them how to properly use soft skills.

By being a part of this program, it shows that we are educationally oriented. That’s why Carole became involved with it.