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Touch sensitive technology revolutionises patient care
A state-of-the-art communication aid has been developed to improve the care of thousands of people with spinal injuries and other highly-dependent patients. The award-winning Sensagest® system, developed by Pure Ability Ltd, enables hospital patients and care home residents with minimal hand movement to alert nursing staff by using a sophisticated, touch-sensitive pad. Instead of pressing a button, users can call for assistance - or control multiple electrical devices - with a series of simple stroking or tapping gestures. The intelligent pad is connected to a small, wearable computer that decodes the gestures and relays a message to a paging device carried by nursing staff. The Sensagest® system, which can also be controlled by other parts of the body including a shoulder or foot, is set to improve the efficiency of patient care and lower costs for hospitals. The system recently won the overall Bone and Joint Innovation category, and the Best Patient Independence accolade, in the 2007 Medical Futures healthcare awards. "Up until now patients with limited motor function have been unable to use assistance call systems because they require patients to press a button," said Ian Anderson, who formed Pure Ability with fellow University of Bristol PhD student Paul Duff. "Sensagest® not only enables them to call for assistance, it also empowers severely disabled patients, who can now control devices - such as a television or light - without having to ask already overstretched nursing staff for help." "By using the latest mobile computing technology we are able to improve both the lives of highly dependent people and the efficiency of patient care. With a growing elderly population, the use of such assistive technologies will become increasingly important as finite resources are stretched to the limit." Developed with support from the Midlands Centre for Spinal Cord Injuries, Sensagest® will be officially launched at the prestigious Rehacare medical exhibition, in Dusseldorf, in October. The system is expected to receive approval this summer from the National Research Ethics Service, formerly the Central Office for Research Ethics Committees. www.pureability.com
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