DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
Nicola Goldsmith , clinical director at GripAble
GripAble is a smart mobile assessment and training device that connects to an app , to help people with upper limb impairment work on their arm movement and grip strength .
He was also told to squeeze the putty as much as possible . After a few weeks , he stated that this was very boring , and he found it difficult to motivate himself to do it every day . With the introduction of gamified and tracked therapy , Peter increased his motivation and even after three months , he was training for an average of 40 minutes per day .
His pinch strength and grip strength both improved and his ADL challenges reduced . He continues to this day and says that being able to track all his efforts on a graph has really helped him retain this motivation .
Megan , aged 22 , is a professional cellist studying for a masters in a UK conservatoire . She presented with persistent pain at the base of the thumb and overuse of her left extensor muscles in her left , non-dominant , hand . She has underlying hypermobility .
At initial assessment , Megan was only able to play for two to three minutes before pain prevented further play . Pain in professional musicians requires occupational therapists to draw on multiple approaches including biomechanical , psychosocial , and cognitive behavioural models .
Using gamified rehabilitation , she was able to use pinch grips on the chosen device in a very similar formation as she used on the strings of the cello . By engaging with the games , we broke down the pain associations with the cello and she built up pinch activities to over 30 minutes within six weeks .
This then transferred to the cello , which in turn improved motivation to continue with gamified therapy and reduced anxiety about the symptoms threatening Megan ’ s chosen career .
References
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Nicola Goldsmith , clinical director at GripAble , clinical specialist hand therapist at Miriam May OT , partner at NES Hand Therapy Training and president of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy . For further discussion about integration of gamified therapy into clinical practice , please email : nicola @ gripable . co . uk
OTnews November 2021 57