Physical Medicine Blog

May is Older Americans Month and this year’s theme is “Unleash the Power of Age.”

The focus on power is an opportunity to revisit one of the most frequent causes of injury and even death to older adults – falling.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three adults age 65 and older falls each year.  >>

Women have been increasing in numbers in participation in all of sport. Women's soccer, basketball, lacrosse and many other contact sports are seeing increasing number of participants of all ages. When looking at data comparing male versus female concussion injury rates in sports where both sexes play the same sport, females clearly predominate.  >>

Biodex is pleased to continue our support of the Foundation for Physical Therapy’s Partners in Research program as a as Bronze Level Sponsor.  The Foundation has made remarkable contributions to the field of Physical Therapy by providing doctoral scholarships, fellowships, and research grants to emerging physical therapist researchers.    We are privileged to be part of the Partners in Research program.   Our work together over the last 8 years has assisted Biodex in making significant technological advancements in Physical Rehabilitation. >>

What is a Isokinetic Testing Machine?
Before we answer this question, the average person might be asking what language we are even speaking.

Don’t worry, it is english.
bio-
a combining form meaning “life” occurring in loanwords from Greek. Origin: combining form of Greek bíos  life; akin to Latin vīvus  living, Sanskrit jīvas.

-dex
referring to computers.

isokinetic
pertaining to an exercise providing variable resistance to a movement at a constant speed, with the assistance of specialized equipment. >>

There was an interesting study on Falls in Seniors that was conducted over a 3 year period at 2 long-term care facilities in British Columbia.  The objective of this study was to get a better understanding as to the reasons why seniors fall.   Digital video cameras were installed in the common areas of the long-term care facilities. When a fall occurred, facility staff completed an incident report and the video footage was collected. A team reviewed each fall video with a validated questionnaire that probed the cause of imbalance and activity at the time of falling.   The researchers found that the most common reason older adults fall – at least in long-term care facilities – is the incorrect shifting of body weight.   For the full summary >>