PACE - HEALTH CHAMPIONING SOLUTIONS

hcPACE - ergonomic assistance for standing, sitting, resting, rising and walking

Patent pending 2020

A game changer. A therapist's tool because it is safer for the clinician. Therapists will gobble it up.

Head of Physical Therapy, VA Hospital
Home health, outpatient, inpatient acute rehab, geriatric, pediatric, skilled nursing facilities & orthopedics. Specialized in movement analysis, manual therapy. Participated in an Action Based Leadership program.Rehab Coordinator physical & occupational therapy services in a multi-facility setting.

Ergonomic use, cues for keeping center of gravity over pelvis
Avoid falls with turns & twists of current market walkers, especially in tight spaces with side & back support
Using heel-of-hand, one of the strongest parts of the body, moving the body with the legs instead of the arms
Prevent leaning forward, using the body core to move vs. the arms
Chair higher at upper thigh, avoiding dropping down & removes difficulty rising up – resting seat vs a chair
Optional accessory holds e.g. O2, IV, parasol (outdoor use in hot sun markets e.g. FL/AZ) pulse ox, portable ECG & cell phone in the hand-arm rest, foot rest, portable commode to insert for unstable to keep support
Removes the need for any hand grip for comorbidities such as rheumatoid arthritis, stroke weakness, etc.
Pressure auto breaking with weight pressed down, using the body’s natural movement and kinetic energy
Therapists get to choose the footing, mix and match gliders and wheel sizes based on the individual needs of the patient e.g. if one sided weakness, amputation, more or less stable
Front handles to rise from a toilet, low chair bed to use legs and not the back with full support getting to a standing position.

Tiziano Marovino, DPT, MPH, DAIPM
is Chief of Health Strategy and Innovation at the Biogenesis Group, a disease management and senior human performance research center in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he performs clinical research in health economics, measurement studies, and population health. Physical Therapy, epidemiology and kineseology. He is an adjunct faculty member at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, where he teaches differential screening in the DPT program, and is in the graduate Human Performance program at Concordia University in Chicago, IL. Dr. Marovino serves as PPM’s pain device expert.

At this point, I don’t think we need any further people to evaluate as I believe everything at this point forward is redundant---we have already noted it. From a posture and movement efficiency perspective, the device allows proper posture and encourages functional locomotion as a result. Walking muscles and postural muscles are in an optimal position to deliver biomechanically correct bipedal gait using a walking aid that is very safe due to the inherent stability of the design.

The device is safe, stable and allows biomechanically correct gait to occur in patients whose recovery trajectory is consistent with normal gait. In those afflicted with disease, injury or older age who are no longer capable of safe, independent gait, then this device can assist in acting as an aid to allow a more normal and safe compensated form of assisted gait. Either way, this device represents an improvement over currently available walker technology from a safety standpoint

Tiziano Marovino, TLC Pain Management, Physical Therapy - Pain Management, Ypsilanti, Michigan

The major issues with devices on the market today include:

allowing a person’s center of gravity to be away from/in front of the pelvis with less/loss of balance;
having the device in front of the person impeding, or the perception to the user, to be in the way prohibiting the natural motion of moving the feet forward, as well as not providing support to prevent falling sideways and backwards;
forcing the use of hands, wrists and shoulders causing stress, unable to squeeze a brake well or timely;
unable to have support while turning to sit down, and then not able to easily rise again;
inability to turn around in tight spaces, causing users to leave walker behind to get to toilet, chair, bed and car without support;

From career physical therapists (PTs):

wheels on the outside catch, on the inside people trip, and wheels are usually too loose that easily break;
when turning or going backward, patients cannot recover when losing their balance, current devices don’t catch them;
all surgeries are different, but walkers are all the same rehab, patients have variable needs of support at different times;
all walkers require hands (even front leaning) and patients have arthritis, weakness, cannot use their hands;
many only need crutches but get a walker instead which causes loss of agility, contraction/constrictions with amputations;
many people are given knee scooters that tip easily/very unstable when used with foot surgeries;
when an injury with upper & lower extremity, people cannot use walkers and forced to use chairs with inability to strengthen;
skin tears on sharper edges with standard walkers that fold,
walkers cannot angle, there is shoulder strain when using hands and leaning forward, cannot be used if a patient has a cast;
when something goes wrong there is no recovery! Very little adaptability is the biggest problem.