Health & Fitness
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Brain Work
Haifa U. innovation aids stroke rehab.
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C6 March 20 • 2008
new computer pro-
gram, developed in the
Department of Computer
Science at the University of Haifa, will
be able to identify the type of brain
damage a patient has had, to calculate
the probability of recovery and recom-
mend the most effective ways to treat
the patient.
Israeli hospitals have recently start-
ed to use virtual reality therapy for
stroke patients. One commonly used
program has the patient watch his vir-
tual image on a screen. For example,
tennis balls are virtually thrown at
the patient from all directions and
the patient's actual hand motions are
recorded on screen.
In the first stage of development
of this new program, computer sci-
entists Dr. Larry Manevitz of the
University of Haifa, together with Dr.
Uri Feintuch, a neuroscientist from
Hebrew University and a research fel-
low at the Haifa's Caesarea Rothschild
Institute for Interdisciplinary
Applications of Computer Science, and
Eugene Mednikov, a computer science
graduate student, fed video sessions of
this virtual reality therapy into their
newly developed program.
With the new program, the comput-
er "learned" to differentiate between
different types of brain injuries: cere-
brovascular accident and traumatic
brain injury. During further testing,
the computer was able to accurately
diagnose, between 90-98 percent of
the time, whether the patient was
healthy or had suffered a traumatic
brain injury or a stroke.
Diagnosis, says Dr. Manevitz, is the
most basic part of treatment — any
doctor and many healthcare workers
can correctly diagnose severe brain
injuries. While this study is an impor-
tant advance in the field of computer
science, it will not directly help soci-
ety. What is important, however, is the
next phase of development, in which
the computer is able to do things that
doctors cannot.
"As soon as the computer identified
the injury, we have a model that we
can use for further testing and analy-
sis — something that cannot be done
on live patients. Using a computer
model;' said Dr. Manevitz, "we can
experiment with different treatment
options and decide which will be the
most effective.
"The computer can also define
how much the patient will be able
to rehabilitate. These are things that
would take a long time for medicine to
accomplish, and some of them cannot
be done at all."
For example, the computer can
simulate how the patient will respond
if the virtual reality therapy throws
more balls to the patient's left side
than to the right or if any other
change would be beneficial for reha-
bilitation. The computer can quickly
examine tens of different possibilities
in a very short time.
Using the computer will help avoid
spending time on treatments that will
not benefit the patient, or worse, cause
harm.
"Our next step is to find similari-
ties in the behavior of people in sub-
groups of brain injuries," said Dr.
Manevitz.
"The human eye may not be able to
see such similarities, but a computer
would easily be able to pick them up.
As soon as we are able to identify
similarities in different sub-groups,
new avenues of effective treatment
will open up for doctors:"
Dressy Rummage Sale
The Greater Detroit Chapter of
Hadassah is seeking for donations to
its second Dressy Rummage Sale.
The request is for gently used
women's and girls' cocktail dresses
and suits, party dresses, prom dresses,
dressy coats, beaded sweaters, shawls
and wraps, bridesmaid dresses, furs,
and handbags as well as high-end
dressy shoes and jewelry. No wedding
dresses. Please drop off clothes on
hangers.
Drop off will be held 9 a.m.–noon
Sunday, March 30, as well as Monday-
Friday, March 31-April 4, at the
Sarah and Ralph Davidson Hadassah
House, 5030 Orchard Lake Road, West
Bloomfield. Drop off during regular
Hadassah business hours is 8 a.m.- 4
p.m. (3:30 on Fridays).
The Dressy Rummage Sale will be
noon-5 p.m. Sunday, April 13, and
9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday,
April 14-16, at Hadassah House. Call
for further information, (248) 683-
5030.