Physical Medicine

High Tech Rehab Equipment from Biodex and determination pays off for TBI and Stroke Survivors at New Beginnings Community Center for Brain Injury Rehabilitation

When you walk into New Beginnings Community Center for Brain Injury Rehabilitation in Medford, NY, the welcoming feeling and positive energy permeate the building.  Allyson Scerri, Founder & President, and Kate DiMeglio, Vice President, opened the state-of-the-art outpatient facility in April 2011, as a result of a common bond.

After tragedy hit both of their lives, Scerri and DeMeglio came together to create the first facility of its kind, which provides progressive long-term rehabilitation services for survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other cognitive and physical disorders.  >>

We recently had an opportunity to speak with one of our prominent rehab customers, Jersey Sports Medicine and Rehab in Morristown, NJ, who are part of Summit Medical Group (SMG). The facility specializes in orthopedic and sports-related rehabilitation. They depend on numerous Biodex products including the Biodex Multi-Joint System 4, Upper Body Cycle, Lower Body Cycle and RTM Treadmill. Most notable of the devices in the facility is the Biodex Multi-Joint System 4, an advanced Dynamometer for neuromuscular and isokinetic strength testing, and rehabilitation.

“One of our best tools in keeping things running smoothly and returning patients to task,” explains P.J. Ritter, who manages the three Jersey Sports Medicine and Rehab clinics,” is the Biodex Multi-Joint System 4. We use it for baseline testing of knee and shoulder patients, to educate patients about their specific injuries in terms of strength and progress, and to build strength with post-operative knee and shoulder patients. It’s also a great motivational tool.” >>

Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) offers a five-semester Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) program which prepares the graduate to work under the direct supervision of a licensed physical therapist (PT). The PTA assists the PT in providing physical therapy services to individuals with changes in physical function and health status resulting from injury, disease or other causes, and provides prevention services to promote health, wellness and fitness. Graduates have the opportunity to work in a variety of settings including hospitals, private physical therapy offices, rehabilitation facilities, schools, and skilled nursing facilities. >>

My roommate from college has often said, “Getting older is not for wimps.” As things start to break, need tweaking or flat out have to be replaced, these events take a toll on the get-up-and-go attitude. Independence, confidence, and a sense of well being, is one of the first things to be rocked, especially when the older adult is affected by disease, injury or surgery requiring a lengthy rehabilitation process.

At Biodex Medical Systems, Inc. one of the markets we serve is physical medicine and rehabilitation. Companies who purchase our products in this market are physical medicine providers up to large rehabilitation hospitals and multi-site centers.

Biodex invests a lot into their technology; made to meet the detailed needs of patients and cannot be purchased at a big box store. The technology produced here works and is used to help people walk and function again, change their lives or return their lives. For the aging adult, this is good news. Diseases and conditions robbing a person of their ability to be mobile, eventually leading to other diseases, can often be avoided through regular exercise and therapy according to many health studies. >>

There is a movement in Canada to get hospitals to invest in more physical therapy services for seniors. According to the Ottawa Citizen, “Frail seniors need to get back on their feet.” The newspaper continues by quoting a recent Canadian Health Authority report, which oversees Eastern Ontario hospitals, citing the need to provide better programs to make them “senior friendly.” The report seeks active participation by the region’s 20 hospitals to counter ageism and promote more positive attitudes. “The recommendations are…for the first time, detailed on how hospitals in this region fail to treat elderly patients properly, leaving them to become so weak physically and mentally, that the only apparent solution is to send them to nursing homes. If they were treated properly, many of them would go home,” according to the article. >>