It’s that time of year again — the dreaded New Year’s resolution. Will you have success this year?
A group of inventors at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have developed a new tool to help you reach your goals. The tool is called the A-Wrist-A-Trac.
A-Wrist-A-Trac is a lifestyle behavior modification system that utilizes wrist bracelets to track and promote healthy eating habits throughout the day. Based on the USDA food pyramid, the bracelets are color coded and available in either rustic fall or pastel spring colors. A user guide accompanies both sets.
Inventors Kathi Healey, Ph.D., Terry Munsinger, dietician Jill Skrabel and Dottie Norgard initially developed the idea to help individuals lose weight through the establishment of healthier eating habits.
They soon realized that the A-Wrist-A-Trac could be used to modify many other lifestyle behaviors. Additional versions are being developed for healthy eating habits for children and diabetic management.
"Behavior modification is hard work and practical techniques to aid in changing behavior on a daily basis are a key factor in making changes," said Dr. Healey, the primary inventor. "Studies have shown that if individuals track and/or monitor behaviors, they are more likely to succeed at modifying them.
"These bracelets are a very easy way to guide and monitor behaviors. It’s simple once an action is performed; the color-coded bracelet is moved to the opposite wrist. It worked for me, I lost 8 pounds over 2 months and, even better, my diet was healthy."
UNeMed — the technology licensing arm of UNMC — worked with the inventors to develop a marketing plan for the A-Wrist-A-Trac products. UNeMed provided a small innovation grant to facilitate the prototype and development of the initial product.
"We were pleased to enable A-Wrist-A-Trac to enter the marketplace quickly," said Michael Dixon, Ph.D., vice president and COO of UNeMed. "This is one of our first forays into social entrepreneurship and we are excited to see people benefit from this innovative product."
A-Wrist-A-Trac products are currently being sold at the Clarkson Gift Shop. Additional release dates are in the works for spring 2009 for other locations in Nebraska and beyond.
Demonstrations and sales of the A-Wrist-A-Trac will be held on the following days:
- Monday, Jan. 12, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., outside the Nebraska Cafe on the third floor of University Tower; and
- Wednesday Jan. 14 at the Clarkson Gift Shop.
A-Wrist-A-Trac devices may be ordered by sending an e-mail to unemed@unmc.edu.
Rosemary Fogarty, Clarkson Gift Shop lead, said there has been great interest in A-Wrist-A-Trac at the gift shop.
"Using A-Wrist-A-Trac makes it very easy to discreetly track what I eat on a daily basis and I don’t need a written log with me all the time," said Connie Greer, who also works in the gift shop. "People comment on how pretty the bracelets are, they don’t know the real truth!"
With a reputation for excellence, innovation and extraordinary patient care, The Nebraska Medical Center has earned J.D. Power and Associates’ Hospital of Distinction award for inpatient services for three consecutive years. It is a US News & World Report 2008 “Best Hospital” for Cancer, Neurology and Neurosurgery. It also received the 2007 Consumer Choice Award, a mark of patient satisfaction as selected by healthcare consumers and has achieved Magnet recognition status for nursing excellence, Thomson 100 Top Hospitals Performance Improvement Leader recognition, as well as the Award of Progress from the state of Nebraska’s Edgerton Quality Awards Program. As the teaching hospital for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, this 689 licensed bed academic medical center has an international reputation for providing solid organ and bone marrow transplantation services and is well known nationally and regionally for its oncology, neurology and cardiology programs. The Nebraska Medical Center can be found online at www.nebraskamed.com
UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through their commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have established themselves as one of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics, biomedical technology and ophthalmology. UNMC’s research funding from external sources now exceeds $82 million annually and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,400 highly skilled jobs in the state. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes 513 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties who practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.