In an agreement announced today, HealthSouth Corporation , the nation's largest healthcare services provider with more than 1,900 facilities in all 50 states and abroad, will pilot Interactive Metronome(R) (IM) training at select locations for persons seeking rehabilitation, improvements in cognitive disorders and peak performance in academics, athletics and the performing arts.

The Interactive Metronome(R) is an innovative technology that uses timing to improve motor planning, coordination and concentration. Currently more than 600 hospitals, clinics and schools nationwide use the IM to address a variety of challenges related to timing, attention and motor planning, including those commonly experienced by people with stroke, brain injury, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cerebral palsy, autism, Parkinson's disease, and different types of language and learning disorders, as well as to improve achievement in academics, athletics and the performing arts.

"The Interactive Metronome appears to affect a core mental process that has been shown to be important in speech, problem solving and motor control and is often damaged in stroke and brain injury patients, as well as in people with certain cognitive disorders," said Richard M. Scrushy, HealthSouth's Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. "At HealthSouth we see as many as 100,000 patients per day, many of whom we believe could benefit from IM training."

In a clinical study published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, the Interactive Metronome(R) was found to produce significant gains in children with ADHD in the areas of concentration, motor planning, control of aggression, language processing and reading. Interactive Metronome training has been found to improve motor planning and coordination in both children and adults in academic and athletic endeavors. In addition, IM performance correlates with academic achievement in areas such as mathematics, language, reading, and attention to task. These findings are consistent with recent research on the growth of the brain that indicates that environmental influences, not just genetics, can facilitate brain development.

"HealthSouth, with its extensive network of healthcare facilities, is known as the leader in rehabilitation. It is uniquely suited to offer IM assessments and training for a wide range of rehabilitation issues, for cognitive learning disorders and to address peak academic and athletic performance," said Tom Eggleston, CEO and co-founder of Interactive Metronome, Inc. "We anticipate that following completion of their IM certified training, HealthSouth staff will utilize this new technology to help a broad range of issues that their patients face."

Using a patented feedback system, the computer-powered IM program takes trainees through a series of coordinated movements and progressively challenges them to improve their timing by precisely matching the computer's rhythm. The IM measures their "score" as the average millisecond gap between their coordinated efforts and the actual beat that they attempt to match. Through a series of training sessions, the IM systematically lowers the trainees' "score" and thus improves their internal sense of timing, focus and coordination. Typically in rehabilitation and cognitive disorders cases, the training improves the score from outside the norm to normal; in performance applications, the training improves the score from normal to an elite level.

Interactive Metronome, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Weston, Fla., with research and clinical support facilities in Grand Rapids, Mich.

(See http://www.interactivemetronome.com/ , http://www.im-powered.com/ or call 954-385-4660)

  HealthSouth can be found on the Web at www.healthsouth.com .

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SOURCE: HealthSouth Corporation