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In-Home Biofeedback for Pediatric Urinary Incontinence

Submitted by soyoungk on Mon, 07/09/2018 - 17:39

Pediatric urinary incontinence (UI), involuntary emptying of the bladder, affects more than 20-million people in the U.S., and 1 in 10 children will suffer from UI. In children with persistent UI that has not responded to conservative management and other directed therapies, an alternative form of treatment that has been shown to be very effective is biofeedback, or pelvic muscle floor training via the use of electrodes to measure muscle activity and provide feedback on the contraction and relaxation of the muscles. However, because these biofeedback devices are currently limited to clinical use, the outcome from biofeedback depends on the family's ability to travel to the hospital, pay for the therapy, and motivation of both the family and the child to participate in the unmonitored home-based training. This in-home biofeedback solution offers a creative in-home, mobile-based solution to clinical biofeedback with the use of electromyography with wireless transfer to a game-based biofeedback app specialized for children.

Student team
Wei-Hong Li
Yicheng Hu
Xiaoyu Ye
Cory Kelly
Giorgio Minai
Mentoring team
Paul Merguerian, MD (Urology)
Kathleen Kieran, MD (Urology)
Jonathan Posner, PhD (Mechanical Engineering)
Bruce Darling, PhD (Electrical Engineering)
Year
Continuing project
No