Pakistani student develops stick to cure Parkinson’s

Pakistani student develops stick to cure Parkinson’s

Adil Ali   26 September

A Pakistani student at University of West England (UWE) has come up with a latest technology to cure patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

A stick, that can possibly prove to be a solution to the ailment, can benefit thousands of patients around the world.

During her study at the university, Neha Chaudhary invented this stick that is able to help 12,500 Parkinson’s patients in Britain alone. The stick induces movement in frozen muscles enabling the patients to walk again. In order to keep people’s attention away from the patients and their pain, the design of the stick has been kept simple and plain.

Having witnessed the disease from close, Neha invented this stick after her own family members suffered from the ailment repeatedly. Her father, in particular, sustained serious injuries due to the seizure of his muscles and his inability to walk.

Seeking pride in her achievement, Neha in an interview said that the success of this invention is her biggest accomplishment so far. Parkinson’s disease is one of the diseases that still do not have a proper treatment as yet and the medication only delays the effects of the disease temporarily. Neha also shared that she started this intervention as her university’s final year project, back in 2014.

The stick has been tested on a lot of people in England. National Health Services (NHS) and Parkinson’s organization in England has shown a keen interest in Neha’s incredible project.

Moreover, Neha even established her own company by the name of ‘Walk to Beat.’ According to Neha, when the patients were given the sticks they were overcome with immediate joy and majority of them expressed satisfaction that the stick does actually work.

Made of plastic, the light weighted, easy-to-carry-around stick makes use of high-tech sensors installed in it. The sensors, thus, activate dead muscles and help the patients to move around again.

Images & Post via: thenews.com.pk

“TAME” – Tremor Acquisition Minimization Device by NUST Students

“TAME” – Tremor Acquisition Minimization Device by NUST Students

Adil Ali   04 April

The anti-tremor device namely “TAME” by the students from NUST – National University of Sciences and Technology, won the 2016-2017 Design Challenge held by the Stanford Center on Longevity in USA.

What are Tremors?

Mostly affecting the hands, a tremor is a type of neurological disorder where a person experiences unintentional, shaking movement. Besides hands, it can affect other body parts like the head and voice too.

There are many types of tremors depending upon the nature of the involuntary movements and their sources. They are categorized as follows:

Resting tremors – These tremors occur when your muscles are resting, and when you move those muscles the tremors may disappear or become less noticeable. Example, Parkinson’s disease.

Action tremors – These tremors occur when you are intentionally or purposefully moving the muscle of the body part, such as, when you are writing, pushing a button, or you are reaching for an object. Example, multiple sclerosis. Action tremors are again of two types – postural tremor, and kinetic or intention tremor.

Idiopathic tremors – This is a type of tremor that has developed spontaneously or due to an unknown cause. Example, Idiopathic Dystonic Tremor.

Common treatment for tremors:
Conventional forms of treatment include medication and physiotherapy to help the patient strengthen their muscles and reduce the intensity of the tremors. But now there might just be a ray of hope for these patients who might be able to go back to normal life with the help of this device called TAME.

What is TAME?

Short for tremor acquisition and minimization, it is the World’s First wearable device for pathological tremor categorization and real time suppression. Pathological tremors are the most common neurological movement disorder which cause involuntary rhythmic shaking of various parts of the human body, most commonly the hands.

Around 280 Million people worldwide have lost their independence due to these tremors. They have to depend on others to perform the simplest tasks in life like eating, drinking and even dressing themselves. But unfortunately even after such medical advancements the scientists are far from even understanding the root cause of the disorder let alone find a cure for it.

A team from SEECS, NUST comprising of Awais Shafique, Hooriya Anam and Muhammad Arsalan Javed under the supervision of Dr. Syed Muhammad Raza Kazmi, are working on a breakthrough technology called TAME which is a noninvasive Tremor Suppression device that can give back the control and ease to the tremor patients to perform their routine tasks without hindering their voluntary movements.

TAME uses a technique called Functional Electrical Stimulation in which low voltage electric current is used for muscle actuation and to generate movement.  Motion censors are used to detect how the tremor is moving in the arm and the device in turn, generate a counter movement for suppression of the tremor and to stabilize the hand.

It is a complete solution for the treatment and diagnosis of Pathological Tremor patients in the form of an intuitive, user friendly and easily manageable wearable device connected to cloud storage for easy management and sharing of diagnosis files. The team competed in BITA 2015 with the most brilliant innovations from Industry and Academia in Pakistan and received the Best I.T innovation Award 2015 along with PKR. 1 Million.

A team from SEECS, NUST comprising of Awais Shafique, Hooriya Anam and Muhammad Arsalan Javed under the supervision of Dr. Syed Muhammad Raza Kazmi, are working on this breakthrough technology called TAME.

Watch the following short video to learn about the project: