Houston Northwest Medical Center offers a new approach for identifying risk factors for falls among high risk adults. The Biodex Balance System is designed to meet the needs of everyone looking to improve balance, increase agility, develop muscle tone, and treat a wide variety of balance disorders.
With the Biodex Balance System, Houston Northwest Medical Center is able to provide older adult patients with a comprehensive fall risk assessment and improve balance with personalized therapy. In addition, the system offers closed-chain, weight-bearing assessment and training for lower extremity patients.
“The Biodex Balance System is a great addition to the services we offer,” says Courtney Bryan, PT, director of rehabilitative services at Houston Northwest Medical Center. “The system will allow us to provide individual fall risk assessments and improve balance with personalized therapy. Our goal is to help decrease the risk of falls that can cause additional health problems.”
The system is designed to challenge the neuromuscular system in an effort to minimize disability and enhance functional performance. A specialized locking surface helps ensure safe “on and off” patient movement, while real-time biofeedback prompts patients to follow proper postural and balance control. Balance training incorporates both range of motion and weight shift exercises. Therapists like Bryan can assess neuromuscular control by measuring a patient’s ability to maintain dynamic postural stability on either a static or unstable surface.
The Biodex Balance System is used for patients with a number of common diagnoses, including fall risk in older adults as well as sports/orthopedics injuries and joint replacement. In addition, the system is useful in the treatment of movement and neurological disorders such as stroke, head injury and Parkinson’s disease, as well as balance, coordination and postural weaknesses.
Advantages of the Biodex Balance System over traditional balance therapy include visual biofeedback, objective documentation, measurement and reporting of postural stability and limits of stability, fall risk assessment and normative data. A fall screening test protocol compares balance test results to age- and gender-dependent data consistent with American Geriatrics Guidelines for Fall Risk Assessment. Printed color data reports can be generated to track each patient's progress and document outcomes.
The Biodex Balance System is available to patients on an outpatient basis. A physician referral is required and a treatment plan is developed by the physical therapist in conjunction with the physician. For more information, call the Rehabilitative Services department at 281-440-2251.