Summer 2017 Edition

Like many of Strength Unlimited’s clients, Kel Mabatah came to TIRR Memorial Hermann’s community-based wellness and recovery program between a gap in outpatient therapy sessions to maintain the skills he had worked so hard to gain. The program provides an enriched environment for people of all levels of ability to optimize their recovery and create a path for lifelong health and wellbeing.

For the first time, the International Symposium on Wearable Robotics and Rehabilitation (WeRob) will be held in the United States, sponsored by TIRR Memorial Hermann, with a focus on the challenges we face in moving wearable robotics from the research setting to personal home use. Currently, most lower-extremity robotic devices are research grade, very expensive and require so much expertise that they can be used only in the clinical setting.

A decade ago, conventional wisdom held that little to nothing could be done to delay the progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and movement disorders. Today, increasing awareness of the potential benefits of physical activity, goal-oriented exercise programs and rehabilitation has changed the landscape for patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

In older adults, falls can lead to traumatic brain injury, hip fractures that reduce mobility and, in many cases, premature death. Late last year, the Memorial Hermann Post Acute Care Network began providing rehabilitation services at Belmont Village West University and Belmont Village Hunters Creek, two senior living communities located in the Houston residential areas of West University and Memorial. This summer, leadership at TIRR Memorial Hermann and Belmont Village piloted the innovative Otago exercise program at the West University and Hunters Creek locations, with plans to expand it to the other 23 Belmont Village senior living communities around the country.

With the expansion of the Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Network across Houston, TIRR Memorial Hermann’s Rehabilitation Psychology and Neuropsychology Program has grown from eight psychologists in 2013 to 25 today. Five are clinical psychologists, and the remainder specialize in clinical neuropsychology, with three focused on pediatrics. Psychometrists have been added to the staff to help meet the increased demand for services.

In a research study funded by a $50,000 TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Innovation Award presented in fall 2014, Mansi Jhaveri, DO, and her team are investigating the impact of a novel form of telemedicine-guided education on secondary stroke and fall prevention following inpatient rehabilitation. Dr. Jhaveri presented the preliminary results of the prospective, one-arm, pilot feasibility study at the 2017 TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Innovation Awards.

The Everyday Well portal gives patients a personal view into the electronic medical record their physicians use to manage and document their health care. Everyday Well allows them to schedule an appointment, check lab results, request a prescription refill and send a message to their physicians – all with just a few clicks. The site can be accessed at any time on any device.

The Spinal Cord Injury and Disability Research Center (SCIDR) at TIRR Memorial Hermann is dedicated to conducting research designed to address the nature, scope, prevention and treatment of secondary conditions. The Center’s current portfolio of research programs includes a longitudinal study on pain, depression and resilience, and a health promotion intervention program designed to develop and pilot test a weight management program.

In 2016, 23 people from the 16-hospital Memorial Hermann Health System were selected as Employees of the Year. That same year, the System launched a new award: The Memorial Hermann Health System Employee of the Year. The employee singled out to receive the award is Martha Garcia, a senior patient care assistant at TIRR Memorial Hermann.

Gerard Francisco, MD, chief medical officer of TIRR Memorial Hermann and professor and chair of the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, has been appointed the inaugural editor-in-chief of the Journal of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine.

TIRR Memorial Hermann changes lives, and not just those of our patients. As we work to find innovative ways to break barriers, shatter perceptions of disability and engage our patients in their own care, many of us find ourselves transformed in the process. Not long ago, we believed that little or nothing could delay the progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and movement disorders. Now we’re finding that physical activity and rehabilitation can extend the lives of patients with PD and also improve its quality.