Hi Margaret,

 

I doubt that this is the trend…

 

Of our advanced stage PALS who are currently using an eye-gaze system, 7 are wheelchair mounted and 3 are on rolling mounts.  

 

Recently, our patients have verbalized a preference for wheelchair mounting when given the option.  In some cases, we’ve had to spend a considerable amount of time getting the wheelchair mount just right for calibration accuracy and to ensure that caregivers can easily work around it or remove it as needed.   We’ve also done quite a bit of “rigging” with spare mounting parts.  

 

These are folks who, though they may be vent-dependent, are still getting out of bed on a regular basis and spend a considerable amount of time in their wheelchairs.   Since positioning can be problematic when trying to calibrate, a wheelchair mount seems to offer more stability and consistency. 

 

One patient, who does spend the majority of his day in bed, has his wife drive his chair over to him and swing the mount around so that he can access his system from bed. 

 

I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts!

 

Amy    

 

 

 

 

There is something I’ve been curious about for a while.-

 

I’ve been thinking about eye gaze systems, mounting, and folks with advanced stage ALS.

 

I wanted to take an informal survey - do people think that most folks with advanced ALS would generally be using a rolling mount for an eye gaze system, or a mount attached to a wheel chair?

 

(I have my own thoughts on what I think most PALS would be using, but I thought I would check with the group first ;-)

 

Thanks for your help with this-

 

Margaret

 

Margaret Cotts, MA, ATP

DynaVox Technologies & Mayer-Johnson