{"id":71411,"date":"2024-02-16T10:30:09","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=71411"},"modified":"2024-02-16T10:30:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:30:09","slug":"stroke-rehabilitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/stroke-rehabilitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping stroke survivors bounce back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reza Sharif Razavian<\/span><\/b> still remembers watching his grandparents suffer from various disabilities as a child.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing that firsthand motivated me to find a way to help elderly people and people with disabilities live better, and to get some of the burden off of caregivers\u2019 shoulders,\u201d Razavian said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Decades later, the assistant professor of mechanical engineering is using his expertise<\/a> to improve the lives of people like his grandparents. Thanks to grant funds from Chicago\u2019s Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Razavian will spend the next year developing a device that could help stroke survivors recover more effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"CAD<\/a>
HAMSTER, named because it resembles a large computer mouse, could help stroke survivors recover more effectively.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Razavian said nearly 800,000 Americans suffer from strokes every year, and most of them end up with some level of permanent motor disability. That\u2019s partly because the aftermath of a stroke looks different for everyone\u2014meaning that treatment needs be different for everyone. Some patients suffer only a minor stroke and recover quickly with treatment and physical therapy; others suffer more severe strokes and have more trouble recovering. Some patients experience paralysis only in one foot or arm; others end up paralyzed in most or all of their bodies. That variability makes it tough for doctors to respond with a one-size-fits-all approach to recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another issue, Razavian said, is that medical staff don\u2019t have time to collect lots of information about their patients\u2019 motor function.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWhoever is giving care to the patient might do a motor assessment once right after the stroke and again a few weeks after,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can\u2019t be done continuously every time the patient visits a clinic. But without a larger amount of data, it\u2019s really hard to come up with a treatment plan that works well for the patient.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Razavian comes in. He\u2019s developing a handheld device\u2014 nicknamed HAMSTER, because it looks like a large computer mouse\u2014that will test patients\u2019 motor function over longer periods of time, giving doctors the data they need to help stroke survivors on a personalized level.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"rendering<\/a>
Easy to use on a tabletop, HAMSTER will apply varying levels of force to patients\u2019 hands and record how they respond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Easy to use on a tabletop, desk or other household surface, HAMSTER will be able to apply varying levels of force to patients\u2019 hands and record how they respond. The device\u2019s force will simulate the movements of real-world objects, like a sloshing glass of water or a cabinet door, and will document how quickly and dexterously patients respond to the movement.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a small device that will be cheap to make and easy to use,\u201d Razavian said. \u201cPatients will be able to take it home and perform different activities with it, and the device will monitor their actions. The idea is for the device to be used by medical providers not only to understand the pathology better but also to plan better, more personalized therapy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Razavian said he\u2019ll spend the next nine months prototyping HAMSTER with the help of a team of undergraduates and one Ph.D. student. In the fall, he and the students will test the device with a small group of stroke patients and a larger control group of healthy people. If all goes well, he\u2019ll conduct clinical trials at a larger scale to better observe HAMSTER\u2019s effectiveness for patient care.<\/span><\/p>\n

If nothing else, Razavian said, he hopes the HAMSTER prototype draws more attention to the importance of motor assessment after stroke.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot to learn about stroke itself, how it manifests in different patients and how to plan the best therapy program,\u201d Razavian said. \u201cSubject-specific therapy is the ultimate goal of this research. I think helping some of the most vulnerable people in our society has ripple effects: It can impact everyone in a positive way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | j<\/a>ill.kimball@nau.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reza Sharif Razavian still remembers watching his grandparents suffer from various disabilities as a child. \u201cSeeing that firsthand motivated me to find a way to help elderly people and people with disabilities live better, and to get some of the burden off of caregivers\u2019 shoulders,\u201d Razavian said. Decades later, the assistant professor of mechanical engineering…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":71412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}