Active Hand Rehabilitation Splint
I worked with a group of biomedical engineers to develop a novel active rehabilitation splint to prevent various hand muscle contractures, also known as Dupuytren’s Contractures.
Currently, there are no low-cost active hand splints on the market, and none that exercise the hands in a way that physical therapists recommend.
I first had the idea for this type of splint years ago as a caregiver for my late grandfather. Prolonging his range of motion required someone to stretch and massage his fingers for at least 30 minutes every day.
When brainstorming project ideas, I knew that a way to automate this would be a significant asset both to patients and their caregivers.
Throughout this project I assessed the technical and commercial viability of the device via FMEAs, “killer experiments”, market research and continuous feedback from medical professionals and caregivers with first-hand experience.
We saw the project all the way through from generating the concept and interviewing stakeholders to developing a fully functional prototype complete with a user manual incorporating best practices in language of design.
