The FDA recently approved MediSens Wireless' wireless body monitoring system, which assesses muscle and neuromotor functions in the upper extremities, for its first phase of clinical trials. MediSens' Clinical Movement Assessment System (CMAS) could be used by health care professionals working in physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, orthopedics and physical and occupational therapy.

One of MediSens' technology's key applications is to use the real-time wireless monitoring technology to help diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy, which causes a loss of sensation in the foot, and other patients with health issues that affect their balance.

According to CMAS co-investor Reggie Edgerton, Ph.D., the technology could also potentially be used to help diagnose diseases states, including Parkinson's disease.

With the FDA approval, MediSens plans to begin clinical trials, which could establish the efficacy of and cost savings from its technology's deployment. The system will analyze fine motor movement, gross muscle strength, hand-eye coordination and patient response to treatment. The trials are planned across various centers, community hospitals, public health facilities and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

“We hope that this technology will help to reduce the large number of injuries caused by diabetic foot ulcers and by falls each year, both in hospital rehabilitation departments and in at-home care environments,” UCLA professor and MediSens co-founder Majid Sarrafzadeh said.

Sarrafzadeh is also a co-director of the Wireless Health Institute (WHI) at UCLA, which is dedicated to improving the timeliness and reach of health care through the development and application of wireless, network-enabled technologies integrated with current and next-generation medical enterprise computing. The WHI is under the executive direction of Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a UCLA visiting professor of bioengineering and of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, whom MobiHealthNews interviewed soon after his recent appointment at WHI.

For more on MediSens, read this report from HealthCanal