SafeGait body weight support system.
Gorbel Medical, Rochester, NY, recently installed a SafeGait physical therapy device in The Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Facility at Martha Morehouse Medical Plaza in Columbus, Ohio.
“We are delighted to partner with such a renowned and prestigious medical institution that is also one of nine centers nationwide of the distinguished NeuroRecovery Network,” says Brian Reh, president and CEO of Gorbel Inc, in a media release from Gorbel.
“OSU is one of the largest and most diverse academic medical centers in the country and ranks high in its field of rehabilitation as reported in U.S. News & World Report’s ‘America’s Best Hospitals,’ ” Reh adds.
Gorbel Medical is also excited to announce that The Ohio State University and three New York rehabilitation facilities – the University of Rochester Medical Center, Monroe Community Hospital, and Nazareth College – will undertake research using a standardized approach that studies the impact of using SafeGait in therapy with patients who have neurological and neurodegenerative diagnoses. These institutions will begin by looking at people with stroke, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease. Researchers will also investigate the possibility of reducing the financial burden on the healthcare system by focusing on how SafeGait can assist in decreasing the risk of injuries to both patients and health care professionals.
“The features that attracted us to SafeGait were its versatility, the software interface, and the methods of quantifying elements of treatment,” said D. Michele Basso, EdD, PT, professor and associate director of the OSU School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. “The patients are going to benefit by being able to move without fear of falling. Therapists are going to be able to deliver truly innovative treatments, and researchers will be able to measure treatment intensity and outcomes,” said Basso, who also serves as the director of the NeuroRecovery Network at OSU.
SafeGait is described by Gorbel as a device that is manufactured as a dynamic body weight support system that protects patients from falling via dynamic fall protection while they perform activities such as gait, stair climbing, and standing up from a chair during rehab. The device is built to better equip therapists to measure and set goals that challenge patients recovering from stroke, spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative disease, and amputations. SafeGait uses sophisticated Android technology to capture task-level patient performance data in real time as a means to document progress.
[Source: Gorbel Medical]
