Physiotherapy team at Beaumont Hospital win HSE Innovation in Digital Excellence award

A simple device has transformed rehabilitation for patients with dizziness and balance problems from manual in-person monitoring to a wearable sensor, allowing clinicians to monitor and tweak a patient’s treatment remotely, if required.

The creation of the sensor that is transforming care for patients has earned the physiotherapy team at Beaumont Hospital the Innovation in Digital Excellence award within the 2021 HSE Health Excellence Awards.

ADAPT Project Vertigenius Wins HSE Excellence Award

ADAPT Centre project, VertiGenius won the Health Service Excellence Award for Innovation in Integrated Digital Excellence this week. VertiGenius is a mobile health and wearable-sensor based exercise application for the rehabilitation of dizziness, vertigo and balance problems. The HSE award aims to recognise digital initiatives to improve integrated care and the winner was announced at a special event on Wednesday 14th September.

VertiGenius is headed up by Dr Dara Meldrum, Trinity College Dublin Physiotherapist, and Senior Research Fellow of Clinical Medicine. In a digitally mediated world expedited as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, VertiGenius provided a mobile application where patients could gain access to rehabilitation programmes for issues such as dizziness, vertigo, and imbalance at home. At a time when non-emergency doctor’s visits and outpatient appointments were significantly reduced or eliminated, connecting doctors with their patients remotely was a huge priority over the last 18 months.

Smart tech to treat debilitating balance disorders – The Irish Times

Physiotherapist Dr Dara Meldrum developed Vertigenius for clinical use – Last year, TV doctor Michael Mosley took the participants in his Channel 4 weight -loss programme by surprise when he asked them to close their eyes and stand on one leg. Dr Mosley wasn’t playing games.

He was highlighting the results of a study by the UK’s Medical Research Council that linked three measures of physical capability – balance, grip, and chair-rise speed – with life expectancy. Of the three strengths tested, poor standing balance was identified as more strongly associated with mortality.

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