By Stephanie R. Conner

 

For Arnold Dunlap, it’s all about having fun and trying to beat his high score.

 

The Chandler resident isn’t a regular at the video arcade or a frequent player of social media games. He is a stroke survivor. And those high scores and point totals are a big part of his physical therapy.

 

Dunlap is part of a program developed by Tempe-based Kinetic Muscles that is helping him retrain his brain and muscles while regaining coordination.

 

“While you’re doing it, you don’t realize you’re having therapy because you’re actually having fun doing it,” says Dunlap, who suffered a stroke on Jan. 9, 2008. “I’m trying to win that game.”

 

Retraining the Brain

 

Ed Koeneman, co-founder and chief operating officer of Kinetic Muscles, said that he and his father — both engineers — learned about 10 years ago that the brain can make new pathways after an injury.

 

“It was starting to become mainstream knowledge that you can regain function on the paralyzed side of your body,” Koeneman explains. But, he adds, the necessary rehabilitation therapy is intense. “It requires six hours a day, five days a week, for weeks and weeks.”

 

Rehab for stroke survivors is about repetitive motions to retrain the brain. And that gave Koeneman and his dad an idea.

 

“Robots do this,” he says. “Robots do things over and over.”

 

After research and testing, the company launched the redesigned Hand Mentor in 2007; and in 2010, the Foot Mentor was released. The hand and foot, doctors say, are important to start with — the rest of the extremity will follow.

 

Beyond making it easier for stroke patients to rehab their paralyzed side, the Mentor devices also make rehab more fun — and therefore, easier to stick with.

 

“We turned it into a video game,” Koeneman says. “It’s amazing how much people will work when they get points and you track their high score.”

 

After his stroke, Dunlap had “drop foot.” Common among stroke survivors, it’s a condition where the muscles required to lift the front part of the foot are weakened or paralyzed. “A lot of people use a brace to keep their foot up so it won’t drag,” Dunlap explains. But today, Dunlap doesn’t need a brace because of the success he’s experienced in physical therapy using the Foot Mentor.

 

Making Rehab Fun

 

The Koenemans aren’t the only ones pushing to incorporate gaming and robotics into rehabilitation. Mark Smith, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of Simulation and Education at Banner Health, adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University and a professor at University of Arizona, has been studying the benefits as well.

 

“The machines (used in rehab) are boring as can be,” Smith says. “We took the Nintendo Wii to see if we could adjust or modify it, so instead of stretching a rubber band, patients could play a game.”

 

The researchers worked with physical therapists to analyze various Wii games and determined which games benefited which muscle groups.

 

Another issue that gaming can help address is this: Health insurance typically doesn’t cover the full extent of what a stroke patient requires. Once they leave formal physical therapy, they’re unlikely to continue their work at home. In fact, Smith says, the attrition rate is 80 percent. But using games can be one way to help patients stick with their therapy and continue to retrain their brain and their muscles.

 

“People get engaged with games,” he says. “They’re engaged with this. They can do it with their families now.” Using the Internet, patients can also track their progress.

 

“You can measure the skills precisely,” Smith says. “And they can be doing it all at home, and report back to their physical therapist.”

 

By working with various departments at ASU, such as bioengineering and mechanical engineering, as well as gaming students at the University of Advancing Technology, Kinetic Muscles is continuing to evolve its products. Plus, Koeneman says, the company is participating in clinical trials — with the hopes that trial data will demonstrate the devices’ benefits to insurance companies and help more patients like Dunlap.

 

“The Foot Mentor makes my foot more flexible, so when I walk, I can push off on it,” Dunlap says, noting that the device helps him with balance and strength.

 

“Sometimes you get tired of going into the gym setting,” he adds. “With the game, you don’t realize you’re going to therapy.”

 

Key Facts About Stroke

 

795,000: The number of Americans each year who have a stroke

 

40 seconds: How often a stroke occurs in the U.S.

 

137,000: The number of deaths each year from stroke

 

$73.7 billion : Cost of stroke-related medical costs and disability in 2010

Source: American Stroke Association