Engineering to enhance human mobility, play, and exploration
Congratulations to Brianna Goodwin! She placed third in the Masters Student Paper Competition at the 2019 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, & Biotransport Conference. Brianna presented her MS research using accelerometers to track arm movement for kids with cerebral palsy who were receiving constraint induced movement therapy at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Brianna completed her MS in June 2018. She is currently working at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Congrats Brianna!
Journal Article in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation:
We collaborated with rehabilitation clinicians across the Seattle region to understand the barriers and facilitators of using wireless electromyography sensors to track motor recovery in the clinic and community
Objective: To examine the perceived value, benefits, drawbacks, and ideas for technology development and implementation of surface electromyography recordings in neurologic rehabilitation practice from clinical stakeholder perspectives.
Design: A qualitative, phenomenological study was conducted. In-depth, semistructured interviews and focus groups were completed. Sessions included questions about clinician perspectives and demonstrations of surface electromyography systems to garner perceptions of specific system features.
Setting: The study was conducted at hospital systems in a large metropolitan area.
Participants: Adult and pediatric physical therapists, occupational therapists, and physiatrists from inpatient, outpatient, and research settings (N=22) took part in the study.
Interventions: Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures: Interviews and focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, then coded for analysis into themes.
Results: Four major themes emerged: (1) low-tech clinical practice and future directions for rehabilitation; (2) barriers to surface electromyography uptake and potential solutions; (3) benefits of surface electromyography for targeted populations; and (4) essential features of surface electromyography systems.
Conclusions: Surface electromyography systems were not routinely utilized for assessment or intervention following neurologic injury. Despite recognition of potential clinical benefits of surface electromyography use, clinicians identified limited time and resources as key barriers to implementation. Perspectives on design and surface electromyography system features indicated the need for streamlined, intuitive, and clinically effective applications. Further research is needed to determine feasibility and clinical relevance of surface electromyography in rehabilitation intervention.
Brianna Goodwin was selected as a finalist in the MS-level Student Paper Competition at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Biotransport Conference (SB3C) this summer. She was one of 27 finalists selected for this competition. Congratulations and good luck to Brianna!
This summer the Steele Lab had the pleasure of hosting three undergraduate researchers – Julia Costacurta from Johns Hopkins, Joe Lawler from the University of Washington, and Preston Pan from the University of Washington.
After a competitive selection process, students are offered a 10-week internship here at the University to work directly with a research lab on campus. One of the program’s final deliverables is a presentation of their work, both in podium and poster format, to members of the local and scientific community. Congratulations to Julia, Joe, and Preston for their successful time here in the lab, and for giving polished presentations.
Julia’s work explored the impacts of Ankle-Foot Orthoses on transient gait, a period of walking where little is currently known about device dynamics.
Preston worked directly with Seattle Children’s Hospital to implement algorithms for detecting bimanual hand movement before, during, and after a common therapy used to promote improved motor skills for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.
Joe’s focus this summer involved working with the University of Washington HuskyADAPT program. HuskyADAPT is a student-run program in its second year and stands for Accessible Design and Play Technology. Joe’s research question asked, how we can improve upon and further promote an inclusive and sustainable program for assistive technology?
Congratulations to Brianna and Ben on being selected as two of the 23 awarded out of 272 applicants.
The De Luca Foundation informed Brianna that she had been selected as a winner of a 2018 Student Travel Award for funding to travel to the American Society of Biomechanics this summer. Her research focuses on “Wearable Technology to Monitor Hand Movement During Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy”.
Likewise, the foundation named Ben 1 of 8 student recipients of the travel award that will help fund his travels to Dublin for the World Congress of Biomechanics. His winning research topic was that “Pre-treatment synergy activations are associated with post-treatment gait in cerebral palsy”.