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Biomedical subjects

C T Merbitz

Publications and source records attributed to C T Merbitz.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

The Communication Analysis System.

The Communication Analysis System (CAS) was developed to facilitate efficient, effective treatment of conversational performance for persons with aphasia. The CAS provides frequent, objective, accurate, ratio-quality measures of ten classes of communicative behaviors for the patient and 11 for the clinician. The clinician using the CAS records the time of occurrence of communicative behaviors by a single keystroke on a keypad attached to an inexpensive microcomputer. The CAS software permits the analysis of data before the next clinical session and includes a method for assessing accuracy and reliability. Sample between-session data show the progress of one patient over several months, whereas within-session data illustrate a use of the CAS to measure a patient's performance under different communicative conditions. Simultaneously, measures of the clinician's communicative performance provide an accurate record of the treatment. This, in turn, allows observation of changes in the patient's behavior as a function of changes in the clinician's behavior. Clinical treatment can thereby be tailored precisely to the individual, optimizing the patient's rehabilitation.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Wheelchair-based mobile measurement of behavior for pressure sore prevention.

A recently developed device which provides continuous, direct monitoring of the pressure relief performance of persons confined to wheelchairs is reported. A custom portable computer records the data, which is transferred for analysis to an Apple IIe. The mobile computer can also signal the patient to relieve pressure on the basis of preset criteria and the patient's performance. Teaching lift-offs to prevent ischial pressure sores is the object. Data collected with the device are used clinically and for research. Examples of such data are presented. The benefits of the device are reviewed.

Computers↗
PubMed1985

Wheelchair push-ups: measuring pressure relief frequency.

Ischial pressure sores (PS) are a long-recognized complication of wheelchair confinement, yet teaching spinal-cord patients to establish lift-off behavior habitually and permanently remains a challenge. A new device was developed to record automatically and continuously the wheelchair lift-off behavior of spinal-cord injured patients. Data from seven patients who used the device for between 768 and 1800 hours each are reported. The device was used to monitor longitudinally the behavioral compliance of each individual with prescribed lift-off intervals using standard teaching procedures. Wide variability between patients and within patients over time was found. Experimental interventions including the use of an electronic timer and written and oral feedback of the previous day's data also varied in their effectiveness. Data from one patient who developed a pressure sore while being monitored suggest that there is no simple relationship between lift-off intervals and PS formation.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The timer-logger-communicator gait monitor: recording temporal gait parameters using a portable computerized device.

A portable microprocessor-based device, the timer-logger-communicator (TLC), was adapted and connected to footswitches to monitor and record temporal gait parameters in 25 hemiplegic and 30 normal subjects. Controls walked at 1.36 m/s with symmetric gait. Hemiplegic subjects had a mean walking speed of 0.43 m/s, asymmetric gait, and varying proportions of time spent in each phase, consistent with previously reported gait parameters. Trends in objective gait measures more closely paralleled trends in functional ambulation classification than in Brunnstrom motor recovery stages. The TLC gait monitor is a useful instrument to measure temporal parameters of gait in the clinical setting.

Adult↗