Now officer R can communicate with his caregivers and family members.
"Tell me"/Dr. Maya Falkov-Menachemi
R. is an officer who suffered severe head and limb injuries from an anti-tank missile, which was fired directly in his direction and hit the operational vehicle he was driving on the northern border. As a result of the injury, he was taken to intensive care at Rambam Hospital in a serious condition, with both of his jaws completely crushed.
After stabilizing his medical condition, he remained in his bed with his head bandaged, his jaws fixed, his limbs bandaged, and he was unable to speak or write on an erasable board.
After several days in which the communication therapists tried to open a communication channel with him, using aids such as an eraser board and pointing to letters, using his only finger that was not bandaged, it was understood that another aid was needed that they did not have.
"Together with 'Ezer Mezion' we turned to the Hilma company for its great success in developing technological aids for populations with special needs," says
Dr. Maya Menachami-Falkov
, director of the communication clinician service at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, who also personally worked with the soldier "Fortunately, they mobilized immediately to find the most accurate and successful solution for R.
They made sure that the officer received a special iPad adapted to his needs and on which the system was installed, with the help of which he began to communicate with his environment."
With the outbreak of the war, arrangements were made in the health system and hospitals for the reception, treatment and rehabilitation of soldiers suffering from head injuries. In addition to the natural difficulty of recovering from the injury, there is added complexity that manifests itself in the absence Ability to communicate with the environment as a result of direct or secondary damage to the speech mechanism Now, a new application called "Tell me" helps the injured to talk effectively with the medical staff and their relatives.
The app "Tell me"/courtesy of Hilma
"Tegid Li" is a system to support speech and expression in situations of acute injury developed by Hilma (Hi-Tech for Society) in collaboration with 'Ezer Mezion'. The application allows patients who have lost the ability to speak due to a physiological injury to communicate by typing and automatically playing The new application is adapted and installed on iPads and tablets in order to allow maximum accessibility. The system allows you to type a sentence and hear it out loud, choose a sentence from a built-in sentence database customized for the patient, send his words to family members or staff members, and more.
The uniqueness of the new development is that the system is accessible and flexible to changes according to the personal limitations of each patient, and can be adapted to their needs quickly and easily by clicking and dragging on the touch screen, this is in contrast to existing communication systems that are more cumbersome to customize. In addition, the injured's family members can also assist, design and enter "Tell Me" in content, according to the needs of the patient, without burdening the communication clinics that collapse under the load of patients.
Another significant advantage is the ownership of the system. While other systems are installed exclusively on a computer (PC) or on an iPad with the IOS operating system, "Tell Me" can be also install on an Android operating system, which can be installed on much cheaper devices and the software itself is provided free of charge.
This is a saving of thousands of shekels for each patient.
These differences make it accessible to everyone and help dramatically in the rehabilitation of the injured and his ability to communicate with the environment easily.
A powerful solution to pain
A revolutionary pain treatment technology has been approved by the FDA for home use
In collaboration with Solio
are behind "Tell Me".
From the right: Dr. Maya Falkov-Menachemi, Michal Ofir and Yonit Goel Karneali/Omer HaCohen, Pagir Faiker
"Due to the flood of needs that arose from the field from the hospitalization departments in the hospitals, we formulated a number of unique systems that are customized to the needs of the war wounded, with the 'Tell me' system being one of them," says Lavala Health
Michal Ofir
, CEO of Hilma (Hi-Tech for Society) .
"This is actually an accessible keyboard capable of speaking at the place of the wounded, predicting words, saving sentences for reuse and quite a few other functions. This way the wounded can communicate independently and quickly and ask for help, express emotions and regain a sense of control. As soon as we recognized that the system could help war wounded, we activated a team Designated by the sons and daughters of the National Technological Service of the Hilma to adapt the answer in record time."
"The application is available on IOS and Android systems, can be used offline in Hebrew, Arabic and English," explains
Yonit HaGoel Karniali
, director of the National Center for Communication supporting the Ezer Mezion Association. "The application settings allow changes in the size of the text, in writing and in different types of keyboards, in a way adapted to people with motor and visual difficulties.
This is one of a number of applications that have been launched or are in development, and are part of the collaboration between the team of communication experts of the National Center for Supportive Communication in Ezer Mezion and the Hilma company that deals in social technological solutions."
And how is R. Hakatsin who was the first to experience the development that allowed him to speak despite his injury?
"When Shasher arrived in intensive care, he was unable to make a sound or eat through his mouth, and his limbs were wrapped in large bandages," says Dr. Maya Menachami-Falkov of Rambam.
"The work with him focused on restoring his voice and swallowing abilities, and expanding his communication abilities with the family and the staff. The goal was to allow him to express his wishes, and to maximize his independence by adapting supportive alternative communication. Through 'Tell me' he was able to communicate with the family, the medical and therapeutic staff. With Time and the rehabilitation process, he began to speak with his own voice and returned to eating orally."
Ofir adds that in these difficult and complex days, the Hilma is coordinating efforts to develop new developments for this period, and is putting into an accelerated process developments that are already in the works, in order to provide technological support for the challenges in the fields of health, welfare and education that intensify during the war and provide a response to the country's citizens on the home front.
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head injury
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