Implementation of dedicated social worker coaching for emergency medicine residents - Lessons learned.

Emergency medicine training is associated with high levels of stress and burnout, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic further exposed a mismatch between trainees' mental health needs and timely support services; therefore, the objective of our innovation was to create an opportunity for residents to access a social worker who could provide consistent coaching. The residency leadership team partnered with our graduate medical education (GME) office to identify a clinical social worker and professionally-trained coach to lead sessions.

The Berlin Bimanual Test for Tetraplegia (BeBiTT): development, psychometric properties, and sensitivity to change in assistive hand exoskeleton application.

Background: Assistive hand exoskeletons are promising tools to restore hand function after cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) but assessing their specific impact on bimanual hand and arm function is limited due to lack of reliable and valid clinical tests. Here, we introduce the Berlin Bimanual Test for Tetraplegia (BeBiTT) and demonstrate its psychometric properties and sensitivity to assistive hand exoskeleton-related improvements in bimanual task performance.

Methods: Fourteen study participants with subacute cervical SCI performed the BeBiTT unassisted (baseline).

Brain-Computer Interface-Controlled Exoskeletons in Clinical Neurorehabilitation: Ready or Not?

The development of brain-computer interface-controlled exoskeletons promises new treatment strategies for neurorehabilitation after stroke or spinal cord injury. By converting brain/neural activity into control signals of wearable actuators, brain/neural exoskeletons (B/NEs) enable the execution of movements despite impaired motor function. Beyond the use as assistive devices, it was shown that-upon repeated use over several weeks-B/NEs can trigger motor recovery, even in chronic paralysis.

Post-stroke Rehabilitation of Severe Upper Limb Paresis in Germany - Toward Long-Term Treatment With Brain-Computer Interfaces.

Severe upper limb paresis can represent an immense burden for stroke survivors. Given the rising prevalence of stroke, restoration of severe upper limb motor impairment remains a major challenge for rehabilitation medicine because effective treatment strategies are lacking. Commonly applied interventions in Germany, such as mirror therapy and impairment-oriented training, are limited in efficacy, demanding for new strategies to be found.