The equipment will be used by the hospital’s Motor Neuron Disease (MND) Department. The five Activity Trackers, worth $8,600, have been donated by The Honda Foundation and Northside Honda.
“Many of us take simple every-day mobility for granted. The Honda Foundation is happy to be able to fund this new equipment, which will better serve the MND community,” Chairman of The Honda Foundation, Mr. Stephen Collins said.
The Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital Foundation is the charity arm of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital tasked with filling the funding gap to provide equipment, training and research to contribute towards patient care.
The Honda Foundation’s donation has allowed RBWH Foundation to purchase five Activity Trackers, critical to monitoring patient’s energy and discovering how this energy correlates to MND disease progression.
Dr Robert Henderson, a senior specialist in Neurology at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, said the Activity Trackers would have a real impact on improving patient outcomes by assisting on-going research.
“Our capacity to develop effective treatments for MND patients depends greatly on our understanding of the challenges that people living with MND face. Armed with new and sophisticated information from the activity trackers will allow us to refine our research and this would not be possible without support from The Honda Foundation,” he said.
Providing neurologists and researchers with vital information, the Activity Trackers will collect patient data and help establish guidelines for better management of MND patients both inside and outside of a clinical setting.
Wayne Patterson, a patient living with MND, believes the equipment will make a big difference to the vital research being conducted surrounding the disease.
“The activity trackers are going to make a big difference to the vital research being conducted here. We know so little about MND and the tracking devices will make it possible to better understand how MND impacts different people. They are also very comfortable,” he said.