General Discussion - Insight needed - Senior Design Project

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Insight needed - Senior Design Project

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Category: Physical Therapy Professional Forum
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Description: General discussion for physical therapists, physical therapist assistants and other health care professionals.
URL: http://www.cyberpt.com/ptforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1126
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Topic: Insight needed - Senior Design Project

Posted By: gtBME
Subject: Insight needed - Senior Design Project
Date Posted: Jan 18 2013 at 9:34am

Hey everyone,

My name is Laurissa and I'm a Biomedical Engineering student at Georgia Tech. I am currently part of a team working on the design of a device to aide in the successful execution of physical therapy exercises.

We are capable of measuring the angles of joints/body position with a system of sensors, and the current plan is to incorporate these into clothing that can be worn by the patient. There are a few questions we need help answering, and we would really appreciate insight!

-Do you believe it would be more beneficial to design something with the idea that it will be used in the doctor's office, or at home?
-Are there certain exercises where specific positions/angles are particularly important?
-Are there any injuries and exercises that are more common than others?

Please feel free to respond with ANYTHING you would like to see in a device.

Thank you very much!

Replies:

Posted By: Ask a PT
Date Posted: Jan 18 2013 at 10:17am

Hi Laurissa - very interesting concept. I assume the clothes will be tight fititng. Given various body types - how will you take that into consideration as far ensuring proper locations of sensors. With various software programs out there which allow you to video tape movement and then analyze it, how will this differ?

Your project could be great for feeback for a patient at home and the therapist ie. total knee ROM or shoudler measurements.

May I suggest you posting this on our Facebook page to get more feedback.

Posted By: gtBME
Date Posted: Jan 18 2013 at 10:33am

Thanks so much for the quick response!

Yes, tight fitting clothing (spandex or something). It would most likely be something custom per patient (we'll brainstorm ideas for making this more cost effective once we have a prototype). This will be different because the video camera won't be necessary, making it more portable and less of a hassle to use.

We were thinking that creating something that tracks progress (ROM around a joint may be the easiest for us to accomplish first) and that the patient could use both at home and with a therapist. This would hopefully provide good feedback for the therapist as well as allow the patient to clearly see progress as a morale booster.