January 20, 2023 —
Dr. Anuprita Kanitkar got here to UM to earn her grasp’s and PhD in bodily remedy after finishing undergraduate research at India’s Rajiv Gandhi College of Health Sciences.
She is now conducting postdoctoral analysis in neurorehabilitation at UM’s School of Rehabilitation Sciences, finding out how pc video games can be utilized to deal with sufferers with neurological accidents.
How do you know you needed to be a researcher?
My dad and mom are researchers, so I grew up watching them doing completely different research. I believe my dad and mom have all the time had a huge impact on me. Seeing the joy that comes from doing analysis was very inspiring.
After you get the outcomes and do the information evaluation and all the mathematics, you’ve created one thing that’s your individual. It’s like your individual child.
What initially attracted you to physiotherapy?
I’ve all the time been all for health-related fields. I needed to construct lasting relationships with purchasers, not simply see them one time. As a result of I work in neuro-physiotherapy, as soon as somebody is your shopper, they’re your shopper for a lifetime.
What are you engaged on proper now?
I’m working within the lab led by Dr. Tony Szturm, professor of bodily remedy. We’re creating a pc game-based rehab platform. It helps purchasers enhance their arm or hand perform after neurological accidents from stroke or spinal cord injury.
We use a wi-fi movement sensor that attaches to a utensil, like a pair of tongs or a fork. That turns the utensil into a pc mouse, so when the shopper is controlling the sport, they’re really doing therapeutic workout routines and constructing their motor expertise.
Dr. Szturm is actually targeted on creating therapy plans which can be cost-effective and may readily go residence with the shopper. As a result of this strategy to rehabilitation is computer-based, a shopper may be in a distant space and nonetheless be simply monitored. With these therapy plans, I’m nonetheless capable of monitor kids that have been a part of my examine again in India.
We needed the protocols to be enjoyable and interesting, so the video games are principally arcade video games that contain hitting targets or matching objects. Each motion the participant makes is recorded, so we are able to quantify in numbers what their actions seem like.
So, in the event that they’re taking pictures a goal, we are able to work out what their response time was. In the event that they missed, how a lot did they miss by? What’s the variation of their actions usually?
What has been most rewarding throughout your postdoctoral fellowship?
As part of my fellowship, I’m working with a non-profit group in Winnipeg referred to as First Steps Wellness Centre. Its purchasers embrace individuals who have had a spinal cord injury or stroke. Probably the most inspiring factor is the those that I meet there, and the way a lot they’ve improved of their day-to-day life via their remedy.
There’s one pc recreation specifically, referred to as Aquaball, that evokes a pleasant rivalry at First Steps. Individuals are capable of construct off each other’s vitality.
It’s wonderful, the optimistic change that you simply see of their actions of day-to-day life and the way way more they’re capable of do. Generally it’s one thing seemingly small, like they’re combing their very own hair, which they weren’t capable of do six weeks in the past. However for me as a therapist, it’s monumental to see that change.
What are your plans while you’re performed along with your postdoc?
I’m hoping to remain in academia. I completely get pleasure from instructing a lot and was so impressed to be within the classroom.
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