A raised eyebrow can convey many things: arrogance, surprise, an unspoken question. But in Tom Chau's world at Toronto's Bloorview Research Institute — where he leads a team that develops technologies to help severely disabled children — a pair of raised brows meant a chance for a young patient to do something she never could before: change the channel.
While she couldn't speak or move most of her body, this particular patient could raise her eyebrows. So Dr. Chau and his team created a headband that allowed the child to flip channels by moving her eyebrows up and down.
"Part of our work is looking at novel means for someone with a severe disability to exert some control over their environment," says Dr. Chau, who is trained in several areas of engineering, including electrical, biomedical, systems design and pediatric rehabilitation. "It's about finding ways for them to interact with the world through technology that can recognize and communicate their physiological signals."
The headband is just one example of his portfolio of small miracles, which includes a throat-monitoring device for patients prone to choking because of swallowing difficulties, and a motion-based musical instrument that lets kids "compose" music by moving in front of a computer screen.
"This virtual musical instrument gives kids a chance to exercise and over time increases their range of motion," says Dr. Chau, who also runs the clinical engineering program at the University of Toronto. "It also has psycho-social benefits — parents are telling us their kids are more willing to participate in school."
His work, funded largely by the federal government's Canada Research Chairs program, has been the subject of features on CTV's W-Five and CNN. Several companies in Canada and abroad are considering buying licenses to distribute and market some of his devices.
Before coming to Bloorview, Dr. Chau worked for many years as a management consultant at IBM. But the birth of his first child caused him to re-examine his life.
"This may sound clichéd, but the decision to change careers and go into a field where I could help children came with the birth of my first son," he says. "It was one of those life-changing moments."
Switching from IBM — where he had a company car and cellphone — to Bloorview was a bit of a culture shock at first. But the generous salary and job perks at IBM can't compare to the rewards of his current job, he says.
"The children and families we work with just have so much hope that it's invigorating," he says. "When I witnessed a child playing music for the first time and saw the smile on his face — that's worth a million dollars."
