ULAG 2006 Report

IFESS2006 Conference

A Report of ULAG Activities

Prepared by Roger Nathan, ULAG Chairman 16th October 2006

1. ULAG Special Session September 14th 2006 13.30 - 15.00 Standardization of Upper Limb Assessment for FES-based interventions and neuroprostheses (Session Chair: Roger Nathan)

13.30 - 13.50 Introductory presentation of ULAG Committee presented by Thierry Keller, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland

"Upper extremity limb assessment, what has been done?"

13.50 - 14.15 Milos Popovic, University of Toronto, Canada (Invited Keynote Address)

"Toronto Rehab hand and arm function assessment tools"

14.15 - 14.30 Roger Nathan, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel and NESS Ltd. Raanana, Israel

"Assessment of bilateral upper limb function"

14.30 - 15.00 Round Table Discussion (Moderator: Jane Burridge, University of Southampton, UK Participants: Roger Nathan, Thierry Keller, Milos R. Popovic, Paul Taylor)

"Standardization of upper limb assessment - where do we begin?"

Round Table Summary: Several of the audience presented their experience and recommendations for upper limb assessment tests, which were discussed.

It was concludedthat:

    • Health care professionals tend to have a personal allegiance to tests.

       

    • Test allegiance often associated with a particular clinical centre.

       

    • Much confusion with quantities of new measurement equipment and tests generated in academic centres.

       

    • Patient motivation/opposition to functional tests often a factor.

       

    • Participation important factor not always taken into account.

       

    • Simplicity, speed, low-cost tests recommended.

       

2. Follow-up Meeting (5.00 pm – 6.00 pm, 14th September 2006) Approximately 12 people held a free discussion on the ULAG initiative and how to move forward:

    • There was a recent North America Clinical Initiative to standardize Upper Limb Assessment. A member of the NACI committee updated us and proposed ULAG accept and recommend the findings of the NACI committee.

       

    • A consensus was agreed for the best way forward for ULAG and crystallized into

       

the following recommended plan: ULAG would assemble a database on the ULAG site which would include all material related to Upper Limb testing and would in addition provide recommendations and guidance on the tests in the following form:


Material Concensus Opinion Individual Comments

All and any material related Expert opinion - Approved by Experience of users - Open to ULA ULAG committee to all

In addition some sort of "Citations" or "Rating" counter would in time cause the good and relevant material be seen to be visibly acknowleged.

In addition a search engine could be developed to extract material on entry of keywords.

3. Other Activities

The Chairman of IFESS (Paul Meadows) confirmed ULAG's official status as a special interest group within IFESS bearing the IFESS-ULAG logo. He requested to link the ULAG netsite to the IFESS netsite.

Three new members have joined ULAG:

    • Prof. Yasunobu Handa Prof of Restorative Neuromuscular Surgery and Rehabilitation; Graduate School of Medicine, Dept.of Restorative Neuromuscular Surgery and Rehabilitation, Tohoku Univ, Sendai, Japan

       

    • (Contact details soon)

  • Catherine E. Lang PT, PhD Assistant Professor Program in Physical Therapy Program in Occupational Therapy Department of Neurology Washington University 4444 Forest Park Blvd Campus Box 8502 St. Louis, MO 63108 314-286-1945 314-286-1410 (fax) langc@wustl.edu

Special Interest Group: