Meet Dr. Celeste Delap & CAREN
Dr. Delap is the Clinical Coordinator at the Midwestern University Therapy Institute in Glendale, AZ. One of the tools Dr. Delap uses to train students and treat patients is the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN), a state-of the-art virtual reality platform that helps patients increase their balance and mobility.
"I get to do all the things I love. I get to treat patients, I get to teach students and I get to do research. How cool is that?... And where I work at the Therapy Institute, we actually have the coolest stuff."
Midwestern University Clinic Technology
Midwestern University has invested millions of dollars in bringing state-of-the-art technology and tools to its community clinics. From helping ensure that students are Day One Ready by experiencing the latest technologies to treating patients using cutting-edge tools, Midwestern’s commitment to staying in the vanguard of emerging technologies elevates the standard of healthcare and healthcare education.
Transcript
When it comes to using technology to address a variety of patient issues, the CAREN, or Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment, at the Therapy Institute right here on the Arizona campus is that technology. Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of meeting up with a physical therapy instructor and clinical coordinator, Dr. Celeste Delap, and got firsthand experience with some of this very unique technology. Take a look.
Alex: This campus is incredible. I'm curious, Dr. Delap, what drew you here?
Dr. Delap: Actually, I get to do all the things I love. I get to treat patients, I get to teach students, and I get to do research.
Alex: Yeah. How cool is that? The other thing that I've noticed is the technology is insane.
Dr. Delap: It's true. And where I work at the Therapy Institute, we actually have the coolest stuff. Do you wanna come see it?
Alex: I would love to. This room is awesome. Lots going on here. What's happening?
Dr. Delap: This is our vision therapy room. We help people from all areas, so all the way from kids to professional athletes. So sometimes we have people that come in that have brain injuries and they have to work on hand-eye coordination all the way up to people that actually are trying to do it for a living. Yeah. So trying to catch a ball and read at the same time.
Alex: That's interesting.
Dr. Delap: The thing on the wall is actually having them use their peripheral vision.
Alex: So cool.
Dr. Delap: Yep. And then all the way up to people having to use mechanics to help them walk.
Alex: Wow, that's amazing. All this just to help people get better. It's a, you've like the best job in the world.
Dr. Delap: I do. I do. It's awesome. I gotta show you our CAREN, you wanna see it?
Alex: Yeah, let's see it. All right, let's go. All right.
Dr. Delap: Alex, this is the CAREN room. This is where I spend a lot of time and there's only a handful of them in the US and not even that many in the world.
Alex: Oh, that's amazing.
Dr. Delap: It really is. So it's a virtual reality environment and we use it for lots of different reasons. I use it like a bridge for the real life from the clinic. So we are able to come in here and do a lot of real life things, but we're also able to have students in here from all different disciplines.
Alex: All of that on this machine?
Dr. Delap: Yes.
Alex: How does it work?
Dr. Delap: It's built on like a motion sensor platform, and so we can actually move the whole platform and have people walking on it. So I had a patient that's a flight attendant and we couldn't actually get her up in the air to figure out if she could do her work.
Alex: Oh.
Dr. Delap: So we actually made it so that she could be walking in the environment in a safe way.
Alex: That's so cool.
Dr. Delap: It really is. Do you wanna get on it?
Alex: I would love to. Oh, we're going. Let's go. Okay.
Those were some incredible technologies and what amazing pieces of equipment these students have at their disposal for learning. That was a lot of fun. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Dr. Delap. That was great.