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December 7, 2007
Mexican Biomedical Engineering Student Helps Develop Leading-Edge Rehabilitation Technology at Good Shepherd

Allentown—The use of leading-edge assistive technology at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network is improving the lives of people with disabilities far beyond the borders of the Lehigh Valley.

Maria Hernandez, a 25-year old biomedical engineering student from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico, will soon be completing a six-month internship with Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network, where she researches innovations in assistive technology and learns how to develop equipment that will help improve the lives of people with a disability.

With one month of preparation in a rehabilitation lab at her school to prepare for the adjustments in computer software changes from Mexico to America, Maria has spent the past five months in Allentown conducting research and development of ideas that were originally created by Good Shepherd.

The crown jewel of Maria’s internship has been the development of a new lighting-based stepping product that helps young children with abnormal gate patterns learn to develop a normal walking pattern. It is a “Simon-says” type lighting memorization product called Next Step Light, where children learn to walk step-by-step according to which of the foot pads is lit.

“Students like Maria bring the skills and engineering knowledge necessary to help change lives both here and in Mexico,” adds Mimi Ludwig, M.S., M.E., M.S.A., research consultant at Good Shepherd. “Maria is someone who can take our ideas and implement them thanks to her education and expertise.”

The Junior Rehabilitation Engineering program with the Universidad Iberoamericana is led by Jorge Letechipia, a rehabilitation engineer, inventor and professor. A former director of technology at Good Shepherd, Jorge currently holds several patents and oversees Mexico’s only assistive technology lab at the university. He developed the internship program to allow students to work closely with assistive technology practitioners on product development, while traveling back and forth from Mexico to Pennsylvania as their products evolve.

Maria is the forth student from Universidad Iberoamericana to visit Good Shepherd and the second to complete the full six-month internship program.

In 2006, 22-year-old Jasmin Garcia was the first student to complete the internship program. She worked with Good Shepherd to create modifications to a pint-size training walker known as the “Bronco,” so that a 1 ½-year-old toddler with a congenital disorder could propel himself upright for the first time and learn to walk.

During Maria’s internship, she dedicates most of her time in researching ways to improve the initiatives of the Assistive Technology department at Good Shepherd. These initiatives are specially designed to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities. Examples of assistive technologies are: wheelchairs, augmentative and alternative communication devices, adaptive computer devices and environmental aids to daily living.
According to Maria, common rehabilitation equipment in America like wheelchairs are scarce in Mexico and almost no equipment is available in the proper size for small children with disabilities.

“Biomedical engineering provides so many opportunities for me to help people,” says Maria. “Especially individuals from a third-world country like mine who are in desperate need of health-care assistance.”

For more information on Good Shepherd’s assistive technology, visit www.goodshepherdrehab.org.