Header: DATE, TITLE OF MEETING, YOUR NAME
GOALS FOR THE SESSION
Potential projects (one side of page): Based on my observations…
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Common issues for patients:
o Dorsiflexion
o Posture
o Anomic aphasia
o Traveling backwards (especially in wheelchairs)
o Weight shifting
o Keep hands open
o
Related Word Search App
Patients with aphasia often experience difficulty with recalling a specific word or phrase. They know
what they want to say and know they have the word stored somewhere in the depths of their brain but
cannot pluck the word out of storage. Speech therapists teach patients strategies to overcome this word
block and many patients use related words to give his or her audience clues as to what they are trying to
say. Although this strategy may work in everyday conversation, it does not offer a solution to an
individual who is by him or herself. To whom does a person feed related words when experiencing a
word block while trying to write an email or text message?
Online word databases (such as dictionaries or thesauri) rely on related word searches. It should
be possible to create a related word search website or phone app to allow individuals to search for their
word on their own in their own time.
Biofeedback Posture Sensor:
The benefits of good posture are widely known and accepted but poorly practiced in everyday
life. With the widespread use of computers, bad posture as a health issue has risen in the public’s eye.
Healthy individuals may find themselves with a bad posture out of habit but there are many people who
cannot sense their body’s position. Patients who survived a stroke are especially at risk of bad posture as
some experience a loss of position and cannot sense that they lean to a side. Patients who spend a lot of
time in wheelchairs often slump forward or to a side as the day progresses.
There are phone apps that supposedly use a phone’s gyrometer sensor to check an individual’s
posture. Keeping a phone in a pant pocket says little about true posture when it is the back, shoulders, and
neck that are crucial to balance and good posture. So why not place a sensor at the nape of the neck or in
between the shoulder blades? If the sensor relayed with a phone app, then a cell phone could beep or
vibrate whenever an individual leans too far forward or to a side. Ideally, the sensor could be as small as
an electrode and easily stick to skin (perhaps with the aid of a skin patch).
Side 2: General observations related to future students working/observing at the clinic (one side only)
More general observations. Things like “I observed x number of patients in y number of different clinics
with z number of therapists. In the future, clinics A,B, and C didn’t seem to have as many opportunities
for collaboration with RIT so I’d recommend taking them out of the observing rotation in order to focus
efforts on clinics D, E, F, G… where there seem to be more opportunities”
Make recommendations on an observing structure, as in how much time to spend, do you focus on a
patient and follow him/her, focus on a therapist and follow him/her, focus on a particular activity (e.g.
people with ankle foot orthotics and observe people working on those activities, or something else?
Close with some sort of summary of the biggest 2 or 3 takeaways that you got from this experience.
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Strong relationships between students, professors, and patients
Widespread creative use of devices in clinics
o However, some students and professors are unaware of all of the devices in the clinic