"Bill of Health"-"Wii-hab"
Thursday, May 22, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: Video games have long been viewed as entertainment. But one in particular, the Nintendo wii is gaining ground as a serious tool for physical rehabilitation therapy. As Jeff Yastine reports in tonight's "Bill of Health" hospitals and clinics are a growing marketplace for Nintendo and its hot-selling wii.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: It's not the same as lifting weights or walking on a treadmill. But the Nintendo wii is part of the physical therapy regimen created for Pedro Raimundez. A stroke took away much of the use of his left hand and use of the muscles on that side of his body. Therapists at Baptist Hospital in Miami put the wii's wireless motion controller in his hand and let him loose on one of its games.
PEDRO RAIMUNDEZ, STROKE VICTIM: It's different than somebody else telling you what to do. It's good.
YASTINE: Physical therapist Carolina Godinez coordinates the brain injury program at Baptist and discovered the wii as a rehabilitation tool last year.
CAROLINE GODINEZ, PHYSICAL THERAPIST, BAPTIST HOSPITAL OF MIAMI: The wii controller itself incorporates a lot of movement with the upper extremities. It's not just using the thumbs and the fingers. It's also the wrist action, the arm action, the finger action. So you're getting a more roundabout and overall picture using the upper extremity. As well we can do it in sitting. We can do it standing. You're working on balance. You're working on trunk control. You're working on strengthening. There's a lot of areas that you can work on with one simple game.
YASTINE: Nintendo sold 19 million wii's worldwide last year. Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan sees bigger sales ahead as its use spreads outside the home.
MICHAEL PACHTER, ANALYST, WEDBUSH MORGAN SECURITIES: Rehab doctors saw that you could in fact run back and forth playing tennis or boxing people or really swinging at the air. And I think they looked at that and thought that was an opportunity to get patients to do something more physical than they were doing.
YASTINE: Baptist Hospital rehab facility manager Rebecca Mojica says her hospital is not marketing the wii to patients, but its novelty and usefulness in rehab are appreciated by them.
REBECCA MOJICA, MGR. INPATIENT/OUTPATIENT REHAB, BAPTIST HOSPITAL OF MIAMI: People are very in tune. The patients, they are very educated consumers. They're in the Internet. They read the paper and some times been advertised more and more. And by having the equipment, they know that you are up to date, that you're out there and keeping up with the new things available for the rehab patients.
YASTINE: Wedbush Morgan's Pachter says Nintendo's new wii accessory, the "fit" an $89 high-tech balancing board should be a similar hit with rehab clinics. He sees that helping push wii sales to as many as 25 million units worldwide this year. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.
