Telerehabilitation using a 2-D planar arm rehabilitation robot for hemiparetic stroke: a feasibility study of clinic-to-home exergaming therapy.

Background: We evaluated the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of a 2D-planar robot for minimally supervised home-based upper-limb therapy for post-stroke hemiparesis.

Methods: The H-Man, end effector robot, combined with web-based software application for remote tele-monitoring were evaluated at homes of participants. Inclusion criteria were: strokes > 28 days, Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment (FMA) > 10-60/66, presence of a carer and absence of medical contraindications.

Alignment and performance analysis of free-space optical communications for broadband video transmission.

We describe a free-space optical communications system operating with an externally modulated infrared carrier signal at 1550 nm. The purpose of the system is to explore an alternative to radio-frequency wireless communications, which are subject to spectral congestion and bandwidth limitations. We provide details of the optical alignment procedure and a means for extrapolating the obtained results to larger transmission distances.

Exploring the Feasibility of Computer Vision for Detecting Post-Stroke Compensatory Movements.

Compensatory movements are commonly observed post-stroke and can negatively affect long-term motor recovery. In this context, a system that monitors movement quality and provides feedback would be beneficial. In this study, we aimed to detect compensatory movements during seated reaching using a conventional tablet camera and an open-source markerless body pose tracking algorithm called MediaPipe [1].

A certified de-identification system for all clinical text documents for information extraction at scale.

Objectives: Clinical notes are a veritable treasure trove of information on a patient's disease progression, medical history, and treatment plans, yet are locked in secured databases accessible for research only after extensive ethics review. Removing personally identifying and protected health information (PII/PHI) from the records can reduce the need for additional Institutional Review Boards (IRB) reviews. In this project, our goals were to: (1) develop a robust and scalable clinical text de-identification pipeline that is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule for de-identification standards and (2) share routinely updated de-identified clinical notes with researchers.

Time-Dependent Increase in Susceptibility and Severity of Secondary Bacterial Infections During SARS-CoV-2.

Secondary bacterial infections can exacerbate SARS-CoV-2 infection, but their prevalence and impact remain poorly understood. Here, we established that a mild to moderate infection with the SARS-CoV-2 USA-WA1/2020 strain increased the risk of pneumococcal (type 2 strain D39) coinfection in a time-dependent, but sex-independent, manner in the transgenic K18-hACE2 mouse model of COVID-19. Bacterial coinfection increased lethality when the bacteria was initiated at 5 or 7 d post-virus infection (pvi) but not at 3 d pvi.