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Device Development and Evaluation
The Rehabilitation Research and Development Center mission includes design, laboratory testing and clinical evaluation of diagnostic, therapeutic and assistive devices. Our Center has concentrated on developing new concepts that incorporate advanced technology, rather than incremental optimization of well-known devices. This process requires a critical mass of available technical skills and awareness of the unmet needs of disability groups. The Center's staff has expertise in embedded microcomputers, software design, robotics, kinematics, computer-aided design, fabrication technology, biomaterials, and biomechanics that can be applied to solve rehabilitation problems.
Design/development projects originate in several ways, including: responding to requests from clinicians and assistive technology users, applying basic research results to a new product, finding alternative uses for an existing technology, and knowledge of unsolved problems in rehabilitation engineering. The Center has initiated focus groups and brainstorming sessions using individuals with disabilities, physicians and therapists. At these sessions, we obtain input on clinical problems and present new advances in technology that may solve such problems. Typical topics have been powered and manual wheelchairs, performance assessment, and lifting and transferring patients. Often, the next step is for the Center to sponsor a student design project in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design or Biomedical Engineering at a nearby college or university. Prototypes made by student design teams may serve as starting points for further device development.
Ideally, device development proceeds from the student project or internal seed study to a one-year pilot project for gathering feasibility data to justify a larger VA Merit Review or Co-operative R&D Agreement funded program. An effort is made to focus work on marketable products and to involve manufacturers as early in the development process as possible, with the goal of rapid transfer into the commercial sector.
The Rehabilitation Research and Development Center is uniquely suited to perform ground-breaking assistive device design P from recognition of clinical need, through research, prototyping, laboratory and clinical testing, and finally licensing for commercial manufacture. The Center can explore common engineering solutions to a broad range of problems, unlike the clinic, where the focus is appropriately on the treatment of an individual patient. Industry alone frequently lacks either research capability or access to patients for feasibility trials.
In general, the projects described in this section come earlier in the development process than those described in the Clinical assessment and treatment section. Device development projects typically fall into the following classifications: manipulation, mobility, communication/sensory aids, patient handling, implantable devices, and computer modeling integrated into the design process.