Lingraphica Welcomes Jaleel Shujath as Director of Sales and Marketing

Princeton, NJ. – February 21, 2011 – Lingrapghica, Inc., one of the nation’s leading medical devices companies serving persons affected by aphasia, announced today it has hired Jaleel Shujath to the position of Director, Sales and Marketing.

In this role, Mr. Shujath will lead the effort to increase awareness of Lingraphica’s innovative augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices among stroke victims and speech language pathologists. He brings several years of experience marketing technology solutions to life sciences researchers, while at Cellomics, GE Healthcare, and PBL InterferonSource.

Located at Lingraphica’s Princeton, New Jersey office, he reports to the CEO Andrew Gomory. “Jaleel’s extensive marketing experience international background, impressive track record at PBL and GE, and his enthusiasm for business challenges and team-based success, will serve him well at Lingraphica,” said Mr. Gomory.

Mr. Shujath is a member of the American Marketing Association. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Tufts University and an MBA in Marketing from the University of New Haven School of Business
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About Lingraphica, Inc.
Lingraphica-The Aphasia Company™ is the leading provider of speech-generating devices for people whose ability to speak or understand words has been impaired by a stroke or brain injury. With the Lingraphica they can communicate with picture icons that speak words and phrases in a natural human voice, or they can practice speech using videos and language exercises. The Lingraphica is Medicare reimbursable. It is available for a no-obligation trial. For more information call toll-free 1-888-APHASIA (1-888-274-2742) or visit www.aphasia.com.
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A poll of stroke patients commissioned by the American Heart Association a year ago that found stroke survivors and their families face significant challenges in the healthcare system. Among the survey’s key findings were that a whopping 69 percent of stroke patients reported difficulty paying for medical care. Of those who said they had difficulty paying for medical expenses, 85 percent reported delaying or putting off needed care or skipping or reducing their medicine. Forty percent of survivors reported difficulties with their insurance plans in the past couple of years and 36 percent had gone without insurance coverage at some point since their stroke.

“Research has found that stroke patients without health insurance have up to a 50 percent higher risk of death who are underinsured also have up to a 50% percent higher risk of death compared to stoke patients with insurance, and patients who are underinsured also have poorer outcomes,” said AHA President, Ralph Sacco, M.D., chairman of neurology at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital. “These statistics reinforce why reform or our healthcare system is critical to stroke survivors and those at risk for stroke. We need to make sure all Americans with stroke and cardiovascular disease have accessible, affordable and high quality care.”

Now that healthcare reform legislation — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – is law, many survivors are concerned how it will affect them. While the law is not perfect, the good news is that it contains a number of provisions that should make healthcare coverage more accessible, affordable and adequate for survivors. There are several new protections that stroke patients with private health insurance coverage (or seeking to buy private coverage) should know.

PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS:
As of Sept. 23, 2010, for children under age 19 (and beginning Jan 1, 2014 for adults), no one can be turned down for insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions such as stroke or high blood pressure Also as of this past September, insurance plans can no longer cancel coverage when a person becomes sick.

New health plans, called Pre-Existing Condition Insurance plans, were launched last summer. Intended to help bridge the gap leading up to Jan. 1, 2014, these plans are available for people who have a pre-existing conditions and have been without health insurance for at least six months. The details of these plans depend on the state where you live.

COVERAGE REQUIRED:
Beginning Jan 1, 2014, all Americans will be required to have health insurance. In exchange, insurance companies will be prohibited from charging higher premiums because of health status or pre-existing conditions.

Those who don’t receive coverage through an employer will be able to purchase a private plan through state-based health insurance exchanges beginning no later than Jan 1, 2014. Theses exchanges will be one-stop marketplaces where you can compare plans and choose the one that is best for you from a menu of options.

For more information or to read the whole article in Stroke Connection Magazine, January/February 2011 edition, sign up for this free subscription by clicking on Stroke Connection Magazine

For more information on this law click on Healthcare.gov

Researchers have developed a method to predict post-stroke recovery of language by measuring the initial severity of impairment. Being able to predict recovery has important implications for stroke survivors and their families as they plan for short- and long-term treatment needs.1

“These results indicate that if we know the extent of the initial impairment following stroke, we can predict with remarkable accuracy how patients will function 90 days later,” said Ronald Lazar, PhD, of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center. “We have established the first reliable metric of the current standard care for post-stroke language treatment and a standard against which future treatments can be compared.”

More than 1 million Americans have aphasia, and stroke is the most common cause, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. For many years it was thought that the combination of stroke size, patient age and education, and specific characteristics of language deficit were predictive of recovery, but no reliable metric had been established.

The recent study involved patients in the Performance and Recovery in Stroke (PARIS) database, which is based at the Neurological Institute of Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian/Columbia.

Researchers used the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) to assess language function at 24 to 72 hours after stroke onset and then again at 90 days. Among patients with mild to moderate aphasia after acute stroke, recovery improved to about 70 percent of their maximum potential recovery as long as they received some aphasia therapy. Recovery was defined as the change in WAB score between baseline and 90 days.
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Reference
1. Lazar, R.M., Minzer, B., Antoniello, D., et al. (2010). Improvement in aphasia scores after stroke is well predicted by initial severity. Stroke, 41: 1485-88.

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Designed for people with aphasia, an impairment in the ability to use language, these apps provide a vocabulary of pictures that talk in a natural human voice.

Our New SmallTalk Apps:

SmallTalk Conversational Phrases: words and phrases commonly used in conversations, such as greetings, responses, requests, and statements about well-being.
SmallTalk Daily Activities: words and phrases related to the activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, grooming, and leisure.
SmallTalk Pain Scale: pain descriptions and images from the Wong-Baker FACES pain scale.
SmallTalk Intensive Care: words and phrases patients can use to communicate with medical providers in the ICU.
The Rest of the SmallTalk Family:

Other Lingraphica apps available on the Apple App store are SmallTalk Aphasia Female; SmallTalk Aphasia Male; SmallTalk Dysphagia; SmallTalk Oral Motor Exercises; SmallTalk Phonemes; SmallTalk Consonant Blends; SmallTalk Common Phrases; SmallTalk Days, Months, Dates; and SmallTalk Letters, Numbers, Colors.

Lingraphica’s chief executive officer, Andrew Gomory, is delighted to be offering additional SmallTalk apps for use on the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. “These SmallTalk apps provide affordable communication solutions,” said Mr. Gomory. “We are pleased to be able to offer our growing family of apps to aid people with their day to day activities.”

Lingraphica-The Aphasia Company™ is the leading provider of speech-generating devices for people whose ability to speak or understand words has been impaired by a stroke or brain injury. With the Lingraphica they can communicate with picture icons that speak words and phrases in a natural human voice, or they can practice speech using videos and language exercises. The Lingraphica is Medicare reimbursable. It is available for a no-obligation trial. For more information call 888-APHASIA (888-274-2742) or visit www.lingraphica.com

Princeton, New Jersey (September 28, 2010). Lingraphica, maker of the Lingraphica® speech-generating device for aphasia, announces the release of its five newest SmallTalk apps on the Apple App store at an introductory price of $0.99 each.

Designed for people with apraxia or autism, the new apps provide speech-exercise videos illustrating the tongue and lip movements required for different speech activities:

• SmallTalk Phonemes: Single phonemes;
• SmallTalk Consonant Blends: Single consonant blends;
• SmallTalk Common Phrases: Commonly used short phrases using everyday vocabulary;
• SmallTalk Days, Months, Dates: Words or phrases comprising a single concept related to time;
• SmallTalk Colors, Numbers, Letters: Single colors, numbers, and letters.

Each of these apps offer individual videos that allow users to focus on the sounds, words, and phrases most important to them. Other Lingraphica apps available on the Apple App store are SmallTalk Aphasia, SmallTalk Dysphagia, and SmallTalk Oral Motor Exercises.

Lois Jean Brady, speech-language pathologist at Pro-Active Speech in California, uses the SmallTalk apps successfully with autistic children. She observed, “I have recently had the opportunity to use SmallTalk apps, from Lingraphica, with my students on the spectrum (with and without apraxia). I was amazed at how ideal these apps are for students with autism. They are the perfect visual tool. Students with autism will imitate behaviors from a video more easily than from face-to-face instruction. Video modeling also gives the students the freedom to watch over and over again until the skill is mastered, leading to the acquisition of complex verbal skills. I would recommend the SmallTalk apps to anyone working with students on the spectrum.”

Lingraphica’s chief executive officer Andrew Gomory is excited to be offering a robust set of SmallTalk apps for use on the iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone. He said, “Together, the Lingraphica speech-generating device and the SmallTalk family of apps provide a comprehensive and portable system for stroke survivors.”

Lingraphica-The Aphasia Company™ is the leading provider of speech-generating devices for people whose ability to speak or understand words has been impaired by a stroke or brain injury. With the Lingraphica they can communicate with picture icons that speak words and phrases in a natural human voice, or they can practice speech using videos and language exercises. The Lingraphica is Medicare reimbursable. It is available for a no-obligation trial. For more information call 888-APHASIA (888-274-2742) or visit www.lingraphica.com

New One-Click Navigation mode allows users to navigate through the icon vocabulary with one simple click of a mouse, which makes finding icons and creating messages fast and intuitive.

The smart spell help enables the Lingraphica to suggest corrections for words that are misspelled, taking the worry out of spelling.

A new Icon Editor allows users, caregivers, and health-care professionals to customize their own icon vocabularies by easily creating new icons and changing existing ones.

Additional grammar, math, reading, and memory exercises have been added to the hundreds already included on the Lingraphica, making it easier for users to work independently to improve their language skills.

The mouth-position practice videos have been expanded to include blends, additional words with targeted phonemes, and phrases associated with dysphagia. The 700-plus videos make it easier for adults with apraxia to practice speech production.

Videos of standard oral-motor exercises illustrate cheek, tongue, palate, lip, and jaw movements that help strengthen the oral musculature, providing easy, focused practice and rehabilitation.

All new Lingraphicas will be shipped with the new version. Existing customers who have owned the Lingraphica for a year or less are entitled to a free update. Those who have owned a Lingraphica for longer will need to pay a small fee. Existing customers are encouraged to contact Lingraphica to order the update.

“We know that even with all the new features, each patient has his or her own way of using the Lingraphica. That’s why we remain committed to configuring each device before it goes out the door to mesh perfectly with a particular user’s needs,” explains Lingraphica’s CEO Andrew Gomory. “We have created the device that patients and their speech-language pathologists told us they wanted. And we’re dedicated to making the Lingraphica a great experience for every single user.”

Lingraphica-The Aphasia Company™ is the leading provider of speech-generating devices for people whose ability to speak or understand words has been impaired by a stroke or brain injury. With the Lingraphica they can communicate with picture icons that speak words and phrases in a natural human voice, or they can practice speech using videos and language exercises. The Lingraphica is Medicare reimbursable. It is available for a no-obligation trial. Lingraphica also offers the SmallTalk Aphasia, Dysphagia, and Oral Motor Exercises apps on Apple’s App Store. For more information call 888-APHASIA (888-274-2742) or visit www.lingraphica.com.

DVD Explains Aphasia

“It’s Still Me!” is a 17-minute DVD intended as a guide for people with aphasia and their loved ones in order to help them learn how to communicate with each other more effectively. The DVD explains what aphasia is, how it feels, and demonstrates some methods to communicate when you can’t use words.

The DVD was created by Candy Kugel and Buzzco Associates, Inc. in conjunction with the NAA and aphasia centers in West Texas, California, Canada and singer/composer, Marc Black.

Award –winning actress Allison Janney provides the superb narration. It is a must have resource for people with aphasia, their loved ones, health professionals and health related facilities. Treat yourself to a preview by Clicking HERE .

The DVD is only $15 and is distributed by the National Aphasia Association. To learn more or order a copy, visit:
www.aphasia.org/store/

Concentric Medical announced the FDA clearance and commercial release of the Merci(R) L5 Retrieval System in the United States. Concentric Medical is presently the only company offering devices cleared by FDA for clot removal in ischemic stroke patients. The Merci L5 Retrieval System offers another option for patients, especially those who have “failed” intravenous clot dissolving drug therapy or who could not be treated within the three hour limit.

The Merci L5 Retrieval System is the newest design, incorporating a cylindrical helix with attached filaments. The filaments provide an additional mechanism for securing the clot during retrieval. This device was investigated as part of the Multi MERCI trial, a major multi-center, prospective trial conducted in the United States and Canada. Results will be reported at the International Stroke Conference on February 9th, 2007, by Wade Smith, MD, PhD, Principal Investigator and Professor of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco.

“The clearance of the Merci L5 Retriever in the United States is further evidence of Concentric Medical’s leadership in developing new options for stroke patients,” said Gary Curtis, President and CEO of Concentric Medical. “This next-generation Merci Retrieval System provides another example of Concentric Medical’s continuous innovation and dedication to putting stroke in reverse.”

The Merci Retriever is a “corkscrew-type” device that is delivered into the brain using standard catheterization techniques. A small puncture in the groin is used to introduce the Merci Retriever into an artery leading to the brain. Upon reaching the targeted area, the Merci Retriever is designed to restore blood flow by engaging, capturing and removing the blood clot.

Stroke Facts

Stroke is the number one leading cause of disability and is the third leading cause of death worldwide. It is estimated that there are 750,000 strokes in the United States each year, of which 85 percent are ischemic. An ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain is blocked by a blood clot, which can impair brain function and cause severe disability or death.

About Concentric Medical

Located in Mountain View, California, and founded in 1999, Concentric Medical is dedicated to “Putting STROKE in Reverse”. The company manufacturers and markets the Merci Retrieval Systems, the only interventional devices cleared by the FDA for clot retrieval in acute ischemic stroke. Concentric Medical has a full pipeline of new products to continue to advance the treatment options for ischemic stroke patients. The Merci Retrieval System is available in over 225 centers in North America and in leading stroke centers around the world. Concentric Medical estimates that over 4,500 patients have been treated with the device. More information about Concentric Medical and its products can be found Concentric Medical.com .

Read an amazing story about this life-saving device by Clicking Here .

URL: Medicalnewstoday.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – Methamphetamine appears to lessen damage to the brains of rats and gerbils that have suffered strokes, a new study by a group of University of Montana scientists shows.

“Methamphetamine is a drug that has been shown to exacerbate stroke damage or make it worse when administered before a stroke,” Dave Poulsen, a UM research assistant professor, said in a news release. “But we have seen roughly 80 to 90 percent protection of neurons when administered after a stroke.”

During the study, Poulsen and his team kept thin slices of rat hippocampus – the part of the brain used for memory and learning – in culture for nine days. The slices were then deprived of oxygen and glucose for 1 1/2 hours, mimicking stroke conditions.

The team used a special dye to reveal the damage.

When low doses of meth were administered, the scientists saw less damage in the stroke slices than the non-stroke slices.

“Don’t ask me how – we are trying to figure that out,” Poulsen said. “But methamphetamine is clearly protective.”

The researchers found that small amounts of meth created a protective effect, while higher doses increased damage.

They also learned that lower doses of the drug helped lessen damage up to 16 hours after a stroke. This discovery was significant because the current leading clot-busting drug used for strokes must be administered within three hours, said Poulsen, a faculty member of UM’s Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The researchers also used live gerbils in their study. The animals that suffered strokes became twice as active and agitated as normal gerbils. But those given a low dose of meth were calmer, and dissection showed that their neurons were as intact as those in animals that hadn’t had strokes.

In contrast, nontreated animals that suffered strokes showed profound neuronal loss.

Poulsen said he stumbled upon the apparent protective aspect of meth while helping other UM researchers study the toxicity of the drug on the lungs.

“The reality of it is, we initially used meth and stroked the animals to try to increase the damage, and surprisingly the cultures looked better,” he said. “We repeated it four times, and it worked again and again.”

The work is preliminary, and more research is needed to confirm and expand the findings; however, Poulsen said someday humans may use meth to lessen stroke damage. Read More .