Body
A number of wearable technologies — from smart watches that track daily steps and other data to socks that measure heart rate — are increasingly used in our daily life.
These technologies may also have important potential in the rehabilitation setting.
Dr. Arun Jayaraman, who is Director of the Max Nader Lab within the Center for Bionic Medicine, recently spoke on this topic for his Grand Rounds presentation, "The impact of wearable technology on enhancing human ability."
In his presentation, Dr. Jayaraman discussed an ongoing project involving adhesive sensors that can monitor a person's recovery after stroke, as well as other emerging uses for wearable technology in healthcare. Oftentimes, he said, patients may see improvements during their hospital stay but these may not last when they return home.
"There’s no way to continue to monitor people and have a care model which gets patients to recover naturally," he said. "Over time, they seem to have a drop off. So this is something we need to work on with our technology."
Wearable technologies may provide the ability to track recovery at home after a patient leaves the hospital, and help clinicians evaluate new technologies to know which type of patient may benefit most from the technology and for how long.
In addition to leading the Max Nader Lab, Dr. Jayaraman is Director & Business Development Officer of the Office of Translational Research, as well as an Associate Professor at Northwestern University.