Free Webinar Presented by the Neurosciences Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association and the Canadian FES Interest Group
Date: Wednesday November 21, 2018
Time: 12-1pmEST
Speaker: Dr. Bastien Moineau
Webinar Slides: Moineau and Col. – Webinar – FES-garments for stroke and SCI rehabilitation
Abstract:
Functional electrical stimulation (FES) has been used for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) to retrain impaired neural circuits and regain compensatory uses of their paralyzed muscles (FES therapy). We believe the therapeutic impact of these FES treatments could be higher if they were applied routinely and/or during activities of daily living. However, delivering complex FES therapy in the community is limited by the available equipment. We aim to solvethis issue by developing stimulationdevicesthat can be easily used at home, without professional assistance. This is why we are developing wearable devices, the stimulation garments, to deliver FES on multiple predefined muscles without use of conductive gel. We first compared these fabric electrodes with standard gel electrodes in able bodied individuals. We are also conducting focus groups with potential end-users to integrate in future designs the features that would make the stimulation garments more practical and relevant to these populations. In this webinar, I will present the results of our first usabilitytestsof the FES-shirt with neurologically impaired individuals. I am looking forward to discussing with you our first results and the future direction for research and development.