Wii-habilitation taking off with doctors and patients
NBR staff | Thursday June 18 2009 – 04:43pm

American scientists are using Nintendo’s popular Wii gaming console for uses never dreamed of by its creators, including patient rehabilitation and training for surgeons.

The Wii console’s unique point of difference is its motion-sensitive wireless controller, known as a ‘Wii-mote’, which controls the player’s avatar on a monitor reports LiveScience.

Surgeons in training may hone their fine motor skills by playing with a Wii.

Eight students played off-the-shelf games on a Wii for an hour before virtual laparoscopic surgery with a tool simulating a patient’s body that tracks the surgeon’s movements as they operate.

Those who played on the Wii scored 48% higher than those who didn’t, working more accurately and faster.

The researchers are said to be releasing a complete surgical training system designed for the Wii, where trainees will be able to practice procedures such as suturing.

“There’s really no accurate way to train surgeons in the operating room, so it’s virtually all the on-the-job training, which is very time-inefficient. There are surgery simulators out there, but these are still very expensive. With the Wii, we have a very easy and inexpensive platform where surgery residents can learn and develop their skills”, Arizona researcher Mark Smith said to LiveScience.

At NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, therapists use the console to help burn patients move and stretch the skin, which is crucial for a successful recovery.

“If a burn injury is near joints, the healing process makes the skin tight, so the natural tendency is not to move normally. However, if the patients don’t, the joint itself starts to get stiff, so right from the beginning after a significant burn injury, patients have to start doing physical therapy” chief of burn surgery Roger Yurt said to LiveScience.

Wii games help the burn patients exercise as they need to and “get their mind off their disease, accomplish the objectives of the therapy without being routine and boring and monotonous,” said researcher and physical therapist Sam Yohannan to LiveScience.

“If they’re in for multiple surgeries, for an extended period of time, it gives them a little bit of escape, doing some sort of sport with scenery that’s typically outdoors. And it also improves socialization, and that’s a big part of burn rehabilitation and therapy, to get social support” Yohannan said.

This “Wii-search” as Yohannan sometimes calls it, “is very cutting edge, and there will be a lot more in the future, to see why and how games can better improve the health of patients. It’s a great and inexpensive technology.”

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*Developing empathy in young people
* Post-traumatic stress therapy
* Pain distraction
* Physical rehab
* Visual acuity
* Hand-eye coordination
* Simulating real experiences
* Problem-solving
* Sparking imagination
* Cognitive health
* Understanding how others think
* Social connections
* Tech advancements
* Exer-gaming
* Fun

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Food Lion employees bring holiday cheer to Brian Center Friday,

December 19, 2008 By Sarah Nagem

For many, the holidays are a time for families.

But for nursing home patients, it can be a different story, said P.J. Minton, administrator of the Brian Center Health and Rehabilitation.

“A lot of the patients don’t have families,” Minton said. “Even though we get them stuff for Christmas, it means a lot when someone else steps in.”

Employees of Food Lion’s information technology department did just that Thursday morning. They stepped in and presented Brian Center residents with gifts and holiday cheer.

Someone anonymously gave a Nintendo Wii video game system.

The Brian Center had been raising money for a Wii, Minton said.

“It gives the patients an opportunity to be interactive,” he said.

And some of the games can be used during physical therapy sessions to help patients develop better motor skills, he said.

Minton said one patient who used to play golf will likely enjoy a golf video game.

Food Lion brought the game “Cooking Mama: Cookoff,” which allows players to virtually prepare meals.

The nursing home has a cooking class, Scales said, but some patients aren’t allowed to use the stove.

“So now they can. They can’t get burned on (the game),” Scales joked.

Having a Wii does no good without a television to go with it.

So the group also brought two televisions – one of which was donated anonymously.

The 32-inch television will stay in the rehabilitation room, Scales said. The 27-inch one can be wheeled into patients’ rooms.

Alease Hayes, 61, was excited to see her presents: a throw blanket, socks and a radio.

Hayes said her daughter and her sisters visit her at the nursing home.

But receiving the gifts from Food Lion showed “that somebody cares about me,” she said.

Ruth Petty, 87, said she couldn’t believe the amount of gifts piled up in the dining room of the nursing home.

Petty’s daughter, Susan Dekok, celebrated with her mother at the Brian Center on Thursday.

Dekok, who lives in the Woodleaf community, said she visits her mother almost every day. She will take Petty to her home on Christmas Day, she said.

Dekok said she knew the celebration and gifts meant a lot to the nursing home patients.

“This is a lot of stuff,” she said.

The day meant a lot to Ted Keziah, 63, who has lived at the Brian Center for almost a year.

After Keziah fell down a cement staircase in 1991 and damaged the speech center in his brain, doctors thought he would never talk again, said his sister, Doris Robinette.

He also had a stroke.

“Our mother waited on him hand and foot,” she said.

But their mother, 90-year-old Lucille Keziah, couldn’t do it anymore, Robinette said.

So mother and son both went to live at the Brian Center. They’ve been there since January.

Robinette said the activities at the nursing home, like the Christmas party, have been great for her brother.

“He smiles and everybody loves him,” she said. “Before, he was depressed.”

Ted Keziah has regained the ability to talk.

He enjoys taking part in gatherings at the nursing home. He likes to be out of his room, Robinette said.

“Mom says, ‘He never stays home anymore,’ ” she said, laughing.

As for the gifts, Robinette said she was grateful for the show of support for her family.

“I just think it’s wonderful,” she said.

Part of my treatment has been to do ‘Cawthorne Cooksey’ exercises on a daily basis. These exercises involve turning on the spot, looking right to left in succession, walking a ‘tightrope’ (heal to toe) with eyes open and eyes closed.

I find these exercises to be really boring, and so the Wii Fit has been my saviour! The Wii Fit has so many balance games that can be applied to my treatment, including a Tightrope game where you have to walk your Mii across a tightrope strung over a really tall building. It’s so much fun, and really good training to perfect your balance. Other great Wii games are the Yoga balance games that require skill and poise, and my other favourite is the football game where you lean from side to side on the Wii balance board to header those footballs!

All in all, it makes perfecting your balance lots of fun, a great accompaniment to any physio balance exercises.

I thoroughly recommend the Wii and Wii Fit for fun gaming, rehablitation and to tone up or lose weight. Go for it!

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Wii Play Reaches 7.9 Million In U.S.

It’s unsurprising that the top two games on November’s NPD software charts were the month’s blockbuster titles, Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 5 — but coming in third was Nintendo’s Wii Play, a title that continues to be a regular staple of the top 10 even though it debuted in February 2007.

So just how many units has Wii Play sold to date? 7.9 million in the U.S. alone, Nintendo tells Gamasutra.

With yesterday’s NPD, the company announced that 15.4 million Wii consoles have been sold in the U.S. since launch, which means close to half of Wii owners in the country have bought the title.

Nintendo had four titles altogether in the top 10 on the month’s software charts, none of which launched in November — Wii Play, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Music.

The company’s stated strategy of creating “evergreen” products with mainstream appeal seems to ensure its titles continue to sell.

In fact, according to Nintendo, it can take credit for 198 percent of the industry’s year-over-year revenue growth, and it claims 66 percent of November’s total hardware revenue — combining its Wii and DS, the company accounted for a staggering 3.6 million units.

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Unfortunately, the video will not embed here so please click on the link below. Be prepared to be amazed!

http://tinyurl.com/vetstbi

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Elders enjoy Nintendo Wii

Thu. October 30, 2008; Posted: 01:01 PM

TREMONT, Oct 30, 2008 (Republican & Herald – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) — When it comes to virtual bowling, staff and residents at the Tremont Health and Rehabilitation Centre are in a league of their own — a Nintendo Wii bowling league.

“The original purpose was for an activity to give (residents) something to do and then once we had it, we realized the potential to use it for therapy as part of the rehabilitation program here,” said Korey Flick, activities director.

Nintendo Wii is an interactive video game system, allowing players to “experience” golf, tennis and bowling, among other games.

“It was a good way for the staff to interact with the residents in a social and non-medical way, which was good for everyone,” Flick said. “We’ve tried golf and we’ve tried tennis. Bowling’s the one that every-one’s the most successful with. Generally on a Thursday we set it up for the day and the residents and the staff rotate.”

Local nursing homes and health facilities throughout Schuylkill County are jumping on board the technology trend that they say helps residents with cognitive abilities and motor skills.

Nintendo Wii systems were also donated by Family Home Medical Support System of Mount Carmel, 121 E. Fifth St., to the Shamokin-Coal Township, Mount Carmel and Kulpmont senior action centres.

The Schuylkill Regional Resource Centre, 138 W. Centre Street, Mahanoy City, hosts a “Wii Wednesday!” each week from 1 to 3 p.m.

Physical therapists at Genesis HealthCare Orwigsburg Centre and Schuylkill Centre, long- and short-term skilled nursing centres and rehabilitation facilities in Orwigsburg and Pottsville, are using Nintendo’s Wii video game technology to help patients after an illness or injury.

“It’s good cognitive activity to keep the mind active,” said Amanda Schwalm, a speech language pathologist at Tremont Health and Rehabilitation Centre “In that respect, it’s working on your deductive reasoning skills, and that’s a big part of what I do for short term to home (care.)”

When the Tremont Health and Rehabilitation Centre — a 180-bed skilled nursing facility for short-term and long-term care — first got the system in August, the staff and residents split into teams, challenging each other and bringing a social layer to the work environment.

Kristy Deeter, an occupational therapist, said all residents have access to the system, adding that bowling is the game of choice for many.

“What it helps for people in therapy is, number one, they’re getting some arm movements — full range of motion,” she said. “That movement’s a natural movement for the arm, so I think that’s why we’ve been more successful with that one.”

“It builds up the muscles and it makes the brain think,” resident Dave Wolfe said. “It’s a lot cheaper than going to a bowling alley.”

Wolfe shows up to the activities room each week to play. Facility administrator Dan Daub counts Wolfe among the “rowdy bunch,” of cheering and excitable players.

“I used to do regular bowling, but this is a lot different,” Wolfe said Tuesday, gearing up for his turn against resident Nancy Gibble. “Today I can’t get a strike to save my soul.”

But Wolfe spoke too soon, tossing a strike in his next shot.

Gibble bowled 130, saying she doesn’t really care who wins, she just tries to do the best she can.

Is competition a factor in the virtual sport?

“There is to an extent, but it’s mostly all in fun and trying to beat your score from the week before,” Gibble said.

“It’s kind of a growing trend and a unique way to get therapy done, so we’re glad we could latch on to that,” Daub said.

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