Care with a ‘cyber’ twist

A professor at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science hopes his recent research — using a small wireless computer and tiny sensors connected to the Internet — will help older patients with mobility issues or loss of sensation avoid unnecessary and costly trips to the doctor or therapist while improving their ailments in record time.

The new CustoMed medical monitoring device, developed by UCLA engineering professor Majid Sarrafzadeh in conjunction with UCLA neuroscientist Reggie Edgerton, promises patients experiencing neuromotor impairment as a result of traumatic injury or chronic disease the ease and affordability of substantially shortened therapy and recovery times and the ability to complete their therapy at home while still under the watchful supervision of their doctor.

Using a CustoMed portable handgrip device containing tiny wireless sensors, patients who need restorative therapy for their wrists or hands, for example, can practice their doctor-prescribed exercises at home each day rather than visiting a physical therapist, as they normally would do.