Device to support trauma patients during the rehabilitation of an unstable spinal fracture

Device to support trauma patients during the rehabilitation of an unstable spinal fracture

Bohlander, L.A.

Moes, C.C.M. (mentor)
Albayrak, A. (mentor)
Anderiesen, H. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Engineering

Master of Science Integrated Product Design, Medisign

2011-12-13

Nowadays, when someone is diagnosed with a traumatic unstable spinal fracture, the spine is fixated by surgery and the patient is prescribed to wear a corset brace for 8 to 12 weeks. The two most used corset braces are the lumbar and the thoracic corset brace. These corset braces are highly uncomfortable and prevents the patient from almost every movement. The task of the corset brace, however, is to limit certain movements of the back, but not to prevent every movement. Therefore a new solution will be designed within the scope of this project. The goal of this project is to design a comfortable and wearable device that monitors the spinal movement of the patient and provides direct feedback when pre-set boundaries are crossed. In this case the new device will warn the patient when a possible harmful movement is made. It will also transfer the data to the medical staff so they could adjust the rehabilitation program to the gained insights of the patient’s behavior. The doctor could also reset the boundaries from a distance. Pontes medical and the Academic Medical Center of Utrecht will facilitate the medical background of the project, 2M Engineering will be responsible for the sensors and other hardware and Evalan B.V will collect, reduce, interpret and transfer the collected data. An important part of the exploratory report is the research on the user and the context; this was done by the method of contextmapping. One of the main issues that can be concluded from the user research is the insecurity. Patients and their relatives are insecure about how much they are allowed to do with and without the corset brace. Also, several adjustments of the patient’s life have to be made when they return home. By taking all insights gained by the research into account, finally a vision on the interaction between the user and the future product could be formed. ‘I want people to be more comfortable, mobile and independent while they rehabilitate from a spinal fracture.’ The vision was the starting position for the development of the product. In order to develop several different aspects of the product, many researches were performed. The development started with principle solutions in structured in morphological charts, which lead to ideas and concepts. With the help of a Harris Profile, one of these concepts has been chosen and further developed. The product consists of four parts; a shirt, two sensor modules, a wristband and a docking station. The focus of this graduation is mainly on the development of the wristband and the shirt with the sensor modules. The two main functions of the product are telemonitoring and feedback. This feedback will be provided in two ways; direct and historic. The direct feedback is provided real-time and visualized on the display of the wristband and by a vibration signal in the lower sensor module. The historic feedback can be consulted online by both the patient and his physicians at any time. The product has three main unique selling points: • Lower costs Lower initial costs Less polyclinic visits Fewer adjustments by casting technician More opportunity for hospital to submit new patients • Fewer complications Less thrombosis No friction with the skin High level of comfort • Shorter rehabilitation time Boundaries can be reset on a distance according to the patient’s individual needs Supports correct training Less complications Higher level of independency of the patient

design
healthcare
spine
fractures
trauma
orthopeadics
rehabilitation
telemonitoring

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3606bacc-d8dc-412c-a9dc-6ca83bd73776

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Bohlander, L.A.