Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility

High-Touch Healthcare

“eHealth Evolution”
By Anna Lynn Spitzer | Interface Magazine

hightouch-gloveFinger sensors built into a glove generate musical notes, encouraging stroke patients and those with serious hand injuries to exercise the limb by creating music. The exercises translate into practical skills, like using a key or writing with a pencil. “Music is an under-used path for rehabilitation,” says graduate student Nizan Friedman, who is collaborating on the device with engineering professors Reinkensmeyer and Bachman. “There’s been a lot of promise in using music for enticing motor activity in the brain.”

“High-touch goes beyond developing the next new gadget,” says director G.P Li. Technology users have different needs and the eHealth Collaboratory seeks to bridge these gaps.

“We want to personalize the individual user experience for patients, but also for physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers. We want to offer enough information to the users but not so much that they have information overload. Our approach is not to create universal solutions but to use technology to lower the barriers to individual support.”