(Press-News.org) A new at-home telerehabilitation care service for stroke patients will be offered to residents of Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley as part of a randomized clinical trial led by researchers from across UTHealth Houston.
Investigators from UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in Brownsville, UTHealth Houston Institute for Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, and McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston will create and test software delivered through a website to patients who have recently suffered a stroke.
“The key point is that the Rio Grande Valley is an underserved community and many people are uninsured,” said Fadi Musfee, MD, PhD, MPH, lead investigator of the trial and assistant professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health. “It’s hard for them to go to rehabilitation after a stroke. If they don’t receive rehabilitation, it’s a big burden.”
Co-investigators of the multidisciplinary team include Belinda Reininger, DrPH, MPH, professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences and regional dean of the School of Public Health in Brownsville; Sean Savitz, MD, professor in the Department of Neurology and Frank M. Yatsu, MD, Chair in Neurology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston; Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD, chair of the Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and Christopher Sarofim Family Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Bioengineering at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics; and Emily Stevens, DrPH, MOT, occupational therapist and research coordinator at the UTHealth Houston Institute for Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. Musfee, Reininger, and Jiang are members of the stroke institute, and Savitz is the director.
The stroke survivors will be randomized, with half receiving the telerehabilitation program and half serving as controls. The software program, called Mobile Rehab and developed by Jiang, allows participants to be prescribed personalized rehabilitation strengthening video regimens based on respondent-indicated motor skills and activities of daily living deficits. The intervention will last for three months. They will also receive community health worker home visits to check on progress, provide stroke education, and troubleshoot issues. The control group will be provided a list of social services resources, including mental health, as part of usual care.
Researchers will estimate the functional health, mental health, and caregiver burden outcomes and identify barriers to, and facilitators of, adopting and delivering the new rehabilitation model.
The nine-month study will enroll 30 participants – 15 in each arm, ages 18-80 – who were discharged from Valley Baptist Medical Center within the past month and are uninsured. Individuals with psychiatric disorders, dementia, or baseline pre-stroke motor deficits will be excluded.
Funding is from the UTHealth Houston Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences.
END
Study on new telerehabilitation stroke therapy model led by UTHealth Houston for underserved community in the Texas Rio Grande Valley
2025-02-18
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Study reveals genes that may help predict prostate cancer outcomes
2025-02-18
A recent study published in the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology explored genetic predictors of prostate cancer progression to help identify its clinical outcomes. Conducted by researchers from the D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), the University of São Paulo (USP), and the São Paulo Cancer Institute (ICESP), the study focused on the role of the androgen receptor (AR), its variant AR-V7, and the p160 gene family.
Prostate cancer: a complex and deadly disease
Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of death among ...
Obesity surgery tourism – only approved centres should be carrying out recognised procedures to avoid further tragedies
2025-02-18
Obesity surgery (also known as bariatric and metabolic surgery) is one of the most common reasons for people to do so called ‘medical tourism’ – where they travel to another country to have the procedure carried out at usually a much lower price than in their home country. However, such procedures can sometimes be botched and lead to infections, temporary or permanent injuries and/or scarring, and in the worst cases, be fatal. Regarding Europe, there is currently no published data evaluating how to improve the safety of obesity surgery medical tourism.
Seeking this type of obesity ...
Medicaid telehealth reimbursement policies are exacerbating workforce shortages in safety net clinics, study finds
2025-02-18
A new study published in JAMA Network Open finds that low Medicaid telehealth reimbursement in New York State may be exacerbating a workforce crisis at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), particularly among mental health care practitioners. The challenge compounds existing financial instability at FQHCs and barriers to telehealth access among low-income New Yorkers who rely on safety-net care.
The study, led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, highlights several possible solutions, including payment parity ...
Texas McCombs faculty research hits historic high
2025-02-18
AUSTIN, Texas -- McCombs’ faculty research leaped 10 spots to No. 10 worldwide in the Financial Times’ release of its Global MBA Rankings for 2025, a historic high for McCombs reaching back to 1999.
The top spot for research went to the University of Pennsylvania, with Columbia University and the University of Chicago tying for second place.
Faculty Research is the third weightiest component (10%) of the 21 used in the MBA ranking, behind percentage of salary increase (16%) and salary three years post-graduation ...
Multiple sclerosis: Cell-catching implant helps identify successful treatment in mice
2025-02-18
Images
A sponge-like implant in mice helped guide a treatment that slowed or stopped a degenerative condition similar to multiple sclerosis in humans. It also gave University of Michigan researchers a first look at how primary progressive multiple sclerosis, the fastest-progressing version of the disease, attacks the central nervous system early on.
If administered early, the nanoparticle-based treatment prevented mice from developing symptoms such as paralysis. If given after the first symptoms emerged, it reduced symptom scores by half compared to untreated ...
Q&A: Is it always ‘us vs them’? Researcher explains why flexibility is key
2025-02-18
UNIVERSITY PARK , Pa. — Urban versus rural. Penn State versus Michigan. Star Wars versus Star Trek. As social beings, humans gravitate toward groups. But sometimes group living can spur an “us versus them” mentality that causes conflict, especially when two groups are competing for the same limited resources, like money or a championship trophy.
In the following Q&A, Anne Pisor, assistant professor of anthropology at Penn State and Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member, discussed her recently published paper on the “us versus them” mindset as well as the causes and how to overcome it.
Q: What does your research say about ...
New nanoscale technique unlocks quantum material secrets
2025-02-18
Scientists are racing to develop new materials for quantum technologies in computing and sensing for ultraprecise measurements. For these future technologies to transition from the laboratory to real-world applications, a much deeper understanding is needed of the behavior near surfaces, especially those at interfaces between materials.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have unveiled a new technique that could help advance the development of quantum technology. Their innovation, surface-sensitive spintronic terahertz spectroscopy (SSTS), provides an unprecedented look at how quantum ...
New study uncovers how genes influence retinal aging and brain health
2025-02-18
Vision changes are an inevitable part of aging, but why are some more susceptible to age-related eye diseases and why do some individuals experience more severe decline than others? New research from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) reveals that genetics play a key role in how the eye ages, with different genetic backgrounds influencing retinal aging in distinct ways.
The study, published in Molecular Neurodegeneration, examined age-related changes in genes and proteins of the retinas of nine strains of mice, ...
‘False’ springs, long summers mean uncertainty for NY grape growers
2025-02-18
CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
FOR RELEASE: Feb. 17, 2025
Kaitlyn Serrao
607-882-1140
kms465@cornell.edu
‘False’ springs, long summers mean uncertainty for NY grape growers
ITHACA, N.Y. – Warmer autumns and more “false” springs are disrupting the signals grapevines rely on to gain cold hardiness for the winter and blossom effectively in the spring, according to new research from Cornell University.
“In New York, we are right at the coldest ...
A treatment-resistant, severe type of asthma successfully modeled in mice
2025-02-18
A better understanding of inflammation and lung immunity over the past two decades has led to new, innovative treatments for asthma, including biologic therapies.
This is especially true for a subtype known as eosinophilic asthma—asthma that’s related to the recruitment and overactivation of white blood cells in the lungs called eosinophils.
However, a different type of asthma called neutrophilic asthma has fewer treatment options and doesn’t respond as well to first line asthma therapy.
As a result, people with this type of asthma, which ...