Hydrocephalus and NPH Monitoring by Stephen Dolle of Dolle Communications

Welcome to my NPH and Hydrocephalus Shunt Monitoring Services

My name is Stephen Dolle and I am a neuroscience researcher and medical (shunt) device consultant for the disorder, hydrocephalus. While my Test Test is yet to be made into a mobile app (few apps for chronic disorders are available today), I provide FREE forms & instructions that patients and families can use. Or, you can pay me to guide you thru the monitoring process, where I can also write up diagnostic reports for your doctors. My fees for this are $125/hour. More information is also available on my web site regarding consulting and monitoring at hydrocephalus treatment & forms. These forms are a great way to keep track of your hydrocephalus history of complaints. Below, I discuss what the monitoring forms and user instructions do, and share some of my patient’s monitoring reports.

The DiaCeph paper methodology could easily be produced as a mobile data app.

I became scientifically involved in CNS shunts and shunt monitoring in 1994, several years after a brain injury and onset of hydrocephalus. I had performed shuntograms and cisternograms for hydrocephalus as a nuclear medicine technologist from 1976-1992 before succumbing to the condition myself. So I was quite familiar with hydrocephalus. But it was two years after my own onset of hydrocephalus with a slew of all too common complications, that I became scientifically involved first as an FDA patient advocate, and eventually, as inventor of the DiaCeph Test – an mHealth app that was to run on a PDA and monitor hydrocephalus as early as 1999.

Knowledge is Power
Knowledge is Power

From 1999-2003, I worked with my start-up company, DiaCeph, Inc., developing the concept and trying to raise funds for development. I continued some FDA patient advocacy thru 2007, but eventually moved on into other interests in the neurosciences, most notably, putting on drumming events and drumming for the brain workshops. I continued to stay abreast of CNS shunt technology. And in 2009, I began providing NPH hydrocephalus shunt monitoring and patient consults. Information about these services can be found via the link below.

Dolle Communications Web Site – Hydrocephalus Monitoring

Brain Diagram of Ventricles often Enlarged in Hydrocephalus
Brain Diagram of Ventricles often Enlarged in Hydrocephalus

My drumming workshops became very successful. In Sept. 2015, I put on two drumming workshops and proposed a “Drum-Off for Hydrocephalus” at the National Hydrocephalus Foundation’s PATIENT POWER Conference in Anaheim, California. Feel free to speak to Debbi Fields as to the success of these drum circles.

Below are my July 2016 updated DiaCeph NPH & hydrocephalus monitoring forms and instructions. They are also pictured below as images. New to this series, is a historical flow chart (2nd below) for retrospectively plotting hydrocephalus complaint levels vs shunt opening pressures for any period from a few months up to 10 or 15 years. The instructions for how to do this are included in the back of my July 2016 DiaCeph NPH Hydrocephalus Monitoring Instructions. You are free to download and use these forms. These are also available on my SlideShare.net – SEE further below. Or, you may download from my web site (once I’ve updated it there) hydrocephalus treatment & forms. This is a good way to keep track of your hydrocephalus history of complaints.

Diaceph 5 day 7 marker NPH hydrocephalus shunt monitoring form
Diaceph 5 day 7 marker NPH hydrocephalus shunt monitoring form
Diaceph NPH hydrocephalus historical shunt outcomes flow chart
Diaceph NPH hydrocephalus historical shunt outcomes flow chart

DiaCeph Test MONITORING INSTRUCTIONS

DiaCeph Test MONITORING FORM

DiaCeph Test FLOW CHART

Below are two sample patient reports from hydrocephalus consults I’ve done over the last 7 years. I have permission to host & share these two patient reports so that others affected by hydrocephalus can learn of these new methods in hydrocephalus monitoring.

In the first report, the patient collected 2 weeks of monitoring data via a journal I provided him, and then returned the completed journal via Fed-Ex. From this data, I created ICP graphs using the Microsoft Excel program. And I then interpreted the graphs and wrote up a 15 page report for he and his doctors.

In the second report, I reviewed an NPH patient’s CT and MRI brain scans and medical history for signs of shunt malfunction, aging, and brain atrophy. I then wrote up a report for the patient, and a second report for his physician.

I provide these consults as a medical (shunt) device consultant, mHealth designer, and former imaging consultant. These two reports are as follows:

NPH DiaCeph Monitoring Report #1 on SlideShare.net

 

NPH Consult Report #2 on SlideShare.net

 

Below, are the same (2) DiaCeph Monitoring reports from above, but on my web site as a web page (Report #1), and as PDF files (Reports #1 & #2) for download:

 

NPH DiaCeph Monitoring Report #1 (as web page)

Url address graphic
Url address graphic

NPH DiaCeph Monitoring Report #1 (as PDF file)

DiaCeph Hydrocephalus Monitoring Booklet
DiaCeph Hydrocephalus Monitoring Booklet

NPH Consult Report #2 (as PDF file)

DiaCeph Hydrocephalus Monitoring Booklet
DiaCeph Hydrocephalus Monitoring Booklet

I write about mHealth mobile apps for managing neurological disorders and hydrocephalus. Below is a popular blog on managing migraine with weather apps.

Mobile Apps to help in Management of Weather Related Migraine

The Elecont HD app provides an hour by hour barometric pressure reading that can be used to help manage migraine headache.
The Elecont HD app provides an hour by hour barometric pressure reading that can be used to help manage migraine headache.

This next blog also contains links to many of the mobile apps I have used or recommend for hydrocephalus and related neurological disorders. You will find the links at the bottom of the blog.

Design and Best Use of MHealth Apps

mHealth Apps in Neurology
mHealth Apps in Neurology

Below is a tandem DiaCeph Test – Single ICP Tap study I published in 2003, where my DiaCeph Test monitoring I undertook accurately corroborated ICP readings done by my neurosurgeon.

Dolle Communications Tandem ICP Tap – DiaCeph Test Study

Shunt Illustration for Hydrocephalus
Shunt Illustration for Hydrocephalus

Below is information on my current efforts to make the DiaCeph Test into a mobile data app:

Hydrocephalus Monitoring Test Hopes to be New mHealth App

Below, is airport, TSA assistance, and scanner information on traveling with CNS shunts and cognitive disabilities.

Tips on TSA Airline & Airport Information for Travelors with CNS Shunts

TSA Cares Logo
TSA Cares Logo

Below, are some newer efforts I have undertaken on behalf of accessibility for persons with cognitive disabilities:

Cognitive Accessibility in Hydrocephalus

Cognitive Accessibility accommodations er CognitiveAccessibility.org
Cognitive Accessibility accommodations er CognitiveAccessibility.org

And below, is the home page of my Dolle Communications web site listing my various web pages under the cognitive neurosciences.

Dolle Communications – Cognitive Neuroscience Home Page

Hydrocephalus monitoring, drum circles, and neuroscience solutions by Dolle Communications
Hydrocephalus monitoring, drum circles, and neuroscience solutions by Dolle Communications

Please contact me accordingly. Best method of contact is email. Please contact me per the information below.

Stephen Dolle
Neuroscientist, mHealth Inventor & Drum Circle Facilitator
Email: contact[at]dollecommunications[dot]com
Hydrocephalus Survivor w/ 12 Shunt Revisions
DolleCommunications.com

Advertisement