NoMoCo's pillow support system kits were designed as head restraint kits due to a crucial need by researchers in the field of neuroimaging (MRI, fMRI, PET, and SPECT) to collect accurate output data. Other devices, including bite bars, inflatable bead bags, head and neck braces, and polyurethane molded masks, have resulted in many failed attempts to collect quality image data with no movement. NoMoCo's pillow system provides the support, comfort and sensory feedback necessary to help researchers and technologists acquire more usable data due to the minimization of subject head movement. The kits can also be used for Computerized Axial Tomography exams.
M.J. Meloy founded NoMoCo, Inc., to assist research groups around the country and the world in collecting neuroimaging data with minimal motion.
M.J. started out with a degree in radiologic technology and worked as a radiologic technologist in hospitals and clinics for over 25 years. In 1989, she went back to school and obtained a Master of Arts degree from Pepperdine University in Psychology in 1991. While obtaining her Master's degree, M.J. worked at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Neuropsychiatric Institute assisting a psychiatrist with measuring plaque size differences on MRI scans for subjects with Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, she continued to work in the field of radiology and was the Director of an imaging center, formerly known as the West Coast Spine Institute. In 1993, M.J. attended Arizona State University and obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology with plans to continue working in the field of neuroimaging research. It was during this time that the field became more widely accessible and imaging centers began to appear. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and a research scientist working on several grants to collect and analyze functional neuroimaging data at the University of California, San Diego, which has an imaging facility housing four research magnets.
Through the years, M.J. was struck by the limited number of available head restraint kits when conducting neuroimaging studies. Hospitals are also not equipped in their CAT or MRI scanners to provide patients with pillow systems to make their exam a more comfortable and positive experience. The patented pillow system she created is the only type of support that she found to work. M.J. has received tremendous encouragement from her colleagues regarding this product's development, and she is proud to associate her name with it and make it available to others.
Institutions worldwide that have made the NoMoCo's pillow support system their method of minimizing motion and enhancing subject comfort.
Studies that have benefited from the NoMoCo Pillow Support System
"NoMoCo products allow us to comfortably secure our subjects' heads for scanning, and greatly reduces the amount of data lost to motion artifacts. �More importantly, the pillows increase comfort and encourage subjects to adopt a relaxed posture when participating in functional MRI scans. The various pillows also help to accommodate different head shapes and sizes." Lisa Marie Langevin, PhD. Behavioural Research Unit Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health
