The multi-conference RehabWeek was held in Toronto, June 24-28, 2019.
- TREAT presented a workshop on June 24th titled A Multidisciplinary Approach to Commercializing Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies. Speakers Ryan Ratts, MD from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Christine McDonough, PT, PhD from University of Pittsburg, Greg Lange, MS and Angela Smalley, PhD from Simbex facilitated the 90-minute workshop which was attended by an international group of 62 participants from a range of rehabilitation-related professions, including engineers, researchers and clinicians. The majority of participants indicated that they had never commercialized a product before. The workshop included interactive activities in which participants discussed case studies of commercialization projects as well as an introduction to TREAT’s commercialization methodology. It concluded with a Q and A session. Participants asked great questions and engaged in lively discussions of the case studies, many stayed to talk with the TREAT team afterward and had positive comments to share. TREAT is already thinking about how we can offer more of these types of workshops in the future.
- A team of students from University of Waterloo won the $500 TREAT prize for the “Technology Most Likely to Become Commercially Available” at the 2019 RESNA Student Design Challenge as well as second place overall. Systems Design Engineering students Hannah Sennik, Laura Bingeman, Abiramy Kuganesan, and Nisa Sial developed Reka: Vocabulary suggestions for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices. Reka leverages data from sensors, such as GPS, Bluetooth and camera, and uses real-time information to provide relevant word suggestions to the user based on their personal interests and surrounding environment.
- Researchers from Duke University Leighanne M. Davis, Kevin Caves, Sarah Moninger, and Sandy Throckmorton demonstrated two technologies to identify movement that won them the TREAT prize for the “Technology Most Likely to Become Commercially Available” at the Developers Showcase. The first, Gaitbox, is a low-cost gait speed monitor designed to quickly and accurately measure an individual’s walking speed in a clinical or research setting. The second, iMUp, is an iOS-based mobile application that collects accelerometer data via two small Bluetooth enabled sensors worn on the chest and thigh. Machine learning algorithms are applied to the data to accurately monitor various posture positions (e.g. laying, reclining, sitting, standing, and walking). These devices provide ways to measure movement functions and monitor their improvement or decline and will be useful in both outpatient and hospital settings.
- Congratulations to Seong-Hee Yoon, ATP, former TREAT Intern (and 2012 winner of the TREAT Prize for the “Technology Most Likely to Become Commercially Available”) who was elected to the RESNA Board of Directors.
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