A pegboard device developed by bioengineering students from Rice University aims to better diagnose and evaluate carpal tunnel syndrome by restraining the hand and analyzing movements with a customized PDA.

In a five-minute test, a doctor uses pegs to isolate a patient's individual fingers. "You wouldn't think it works as well as it does, but once you are pegged in, you can't move anything but the finger we want you to," Miller said. A loop is fitted around the finger, and when the patient moves it, the amount of force generated is measured. "PRIME gets the peak force," Xu said. "Then the doctor can create a patient-specific file with all your information, time-stamped, and record every single measurement.".

Apparently, most of the tests for carpal tunnel are subjective—so improving accuracy and providing detailed patient-specific information will be helpful for sufferers in the future. It's a good thing too, because in this line of work I will need all the help I can get. [Medgadget via Boing Boing Gadgets]

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