Altimate’s EasyStand Evolv standing frame.

Standing Frame Featured On Network TV Program

Altimate Medical, Morton, Minn, recently combined forces with ABC-TV's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to provide 9-year-old James Perkins, with an EasyStand Evolv standing frame. James' mother, Ju-Juanna Latif, and her family were chosen to have a new accessible home built for them by the television program. The episode was aired March 30.

Latif, a mother of four who overcame a variety of personal challenges—from being a high school dropout and teenage mother, to living in a homeless shelter, to caring for a disabled child—lived in a home that was neither accessible for James, nor safe and functional for the rest of her family. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition provided the family with a new accessible home that includes a therapy room for James. The youngster's physicians and therapists provided fun and therapeutic equipment, including the EasyStand Evolv stander (which was donated by Altimate Medical). The EasyStand Evolv will enable James to stand for the medical and psychological benefits that will further his development.

Altimate Medical (www.easystand.com) regularly supports charitable organizations that directly benefit people with disabilities. This is the fourth time that an EasyStand product has been donated for an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition project.

Chinese Paralympians Will Use American-Made Mobility

When the Paralympics take place this fall in Beijing, from September 6 through 17, Chinese athletes will be using wheelchairs by Invacare Corporation (www.invacare.com). The Elyria, Ohio-based home and long-term care manufacturer's Top End sports and recreation rehab division won an order to build more than 240 chairs for the Chinese team (China is one of the few countries that purchases equipment for their Paralympics athletes).

"This is an exciting order for us," says Mary Carol Peterson, marketing manager of Invacare's Top End division. "The Chinese Paralympics Committee was looking for the equipment that would help their athletes 'go for the gold.' They chose Invacare Top End. With the help of our Chinese distributor, we will be directly involved in the fitting, building, and servicing of these chairs."

The order includes Top End® Paul Schulte Signature Series Titanium Basketball Chairs; Top End T-5 Tennis Elite Chairs; Top End Eliminator™ OSR Racing Chairs; Top End Transformer™ All-Sport Wheelchairs; Top End X-Terminator QR chairs; and Top End Terminator™ Titanium wheelchairs. This equipment will be used for basketball, racing, quad rugby, tennis, shooting, table tennis, archery, and boccia (a sport similar to bocce, designed for players with disabilities). In addition, Top End will provide 130 Top End Crossfire™ T6™ wheelchairs for the athletes to use when they are not competing.

Most of the wheelchairs will be made at the Top End facility, in Pinellas Park, Fla. The manufacturing facility in Elyria will be making the Crossfire everyday wheelchairs and Transformer All Sport wheelchairs.

Hand Society Unveils New Logo

The American Society of HAND THERAPISTS (ASHT), Chicago, recently introduced its new logo during Hand Therapy Awareness and Injury Prevention Week in June.

According to representatives of ASHT, the use of capital letters in the society's new logo (shown right) conveys strength and leadership in the hand therapy community. The image of hands meeting in the center of the letter "H" represents the organization's emphasis on networking, knowledge-sharing, and patient care.

Paige E. Kurtz, MS, OTR/L, CHT, president of the 3,300-member not-for-profit organization, says, "We felt the time was right to create a logo that we believe truly communicates the ideologies of our society and expresses our members' level of accomplishment, leadership, and professionalism. We believe that our new design does just that, and we are pleased and excited to be able to introduce it to our members and the health care community during Hand Therapy Awareness and Injury Prevention Week."

ASHT's (www.asht.org) mission is to advance the specialty of hand therapy through communication, education, research, and the establishment of clinical standards.

Sen Arthur J. Wilhelmi

Senator Joins Health Care Consultants

The legal-based health care consulting firm Murer Consultants Inc (www.murer.com), Joliet, Ill, recently announced the addition of Sen Arthur J. (A.J.) Wilhelmi (D-Joliet) to its staff. Wilhelmi, who was appointed to the Illinois Senate in January 2005 and went on to become elected in November 2006 to represent the communities of the 43rd Senate District in Illinois, will serve as a senior health care consultant.

Wilhelmi graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1993 with a Juris Doctor degree. During his 14 years of practicing law, Sen Wilhelmi specialized in the business law, real estate, and transactional arena.

Long involved in Joliet and the surrounding community, he has served as chairman of the board for the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce, as well as chair of the Diplomats Committee for the Will County Center for Economic Development. In Springfield Wilhelmi serves as the Chairman of the Judiciary Criminal Law Committee. He is also a member of the Senate Education, Agriculture and Conservation, Appropriations II, and Judiciary Civil Law Committees.

Denise Arriaga

Wilhelmi's work at Murer reportedly will be focused on health care development acquisitions and issues as well as federal and state regulatory filings.

Manufacturer Appoints Market Research/Business Analyst

The ROHO Group Inc (www.therohogroup.com), Belleville, Ill, recently named Denise Arriaga to the position of market research and business analyst. Arriaga will serve a key role in market- and product-related research activities for all business units, teaming with segment and project leaders to quantify business opportunities for both current and new products. In addition, Arriaga will assist the planning group in identifying, analyzing, and monitoring market trends, threats, and opportunities and will lead all product research projects.

Arriaga comes to her position at The ROHO Group with several years of experience as a consumer-driven marketing strategist and resource.

Foot Mouse Makes Debut

The ergonomically designed Footime™ foot mouse and programmable pedal from Bili Inc, City of Industry, Calif, (www.bilila.com) are the latest entrants in the increasingly competitive aids to daily living market. The makers say the new device can help people with hand, arm, and shoulder problems by allowing them to do all computer entries (typing and surfing) by foot. It's a two-part input device: one for cursor control ("slipper"), the other for mouse clicks and shortcuts (the pedal).

The slipper-shaped cursor controller, with elastic strap and Velcro ends, can fit any foot. The pedal, with two-level design, prevents users from stepping on the wrong buttons. These buttons mimic hand mouse clicks, but also enable users to program customized shortcuts (up to 10 shortcuts for each program). The preset shortcuts selected from popular programs add convenience.

A small pop-up window on screen shows all button locations and their defined functions. Users can "see" and touch the buttons by foot. When working with some on-screen keyboard software, the mouse also enables people to do typing by foot. In addition to helping people with hand/arm/shoulder difficulties such as arthritis, stroke, or amputation, the device can serve as a viable option for those with carpal tunnel syndrome.

Rehab Center Gets a New Address

Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital, formerly located in Haverhill, Mass, recently moved its operations into a new 105,000-square-foot facility in Bradford, Mass. Part of the Whittier Health Network, the rehab center is part of a multimillion- dollar industrial structure built by Turner Construction Co, New York City, builders of UCLA Medical Center, New York University School of Medicine, and Harvard Medical School.

Located off the highway on the border of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the new location offers New England residents state-of-the-art rehabilitative programs, equipment, and in-house medical management capabilities. The move doubles the size of its former location, and features 20 oversize semiprivate rooms, with full baths, and 20 upscale private suites. Additional features include individualized and comprehensive aquatic-based treatment programs with a custom-designed therapeutic pool, including water treadmills and floatation and resistive equipment.

The new center is at at 145 Ward Hill Avenue, Bradford, Mass.