Precise Automatic Nail Trimmer to Aid Foot Care of the Elderly

精准自动指甲剪助力老人足部护理

• 批准号: 8978361
• 负责人: Suneel Ismail Sheikh
• 金额: $ 19.99万
• 依托单位: ASTER LABS, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-30 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8978361
• 关键词: Adult; Age; Age-Years; Algorithmic Software; Algorithms; Americas; Arteriosclerosis; Arthritis; Blood; Body part; Calendar; Caregivers; Caring; Clinic; Data; Debridement; Detection; Devices; Diabetes Mellitus; Disease; Distal; Doctor of Philosophy; Documentation; Early Diagnosis; Effectiveness; Elderly; Emotional Stress; Ensure; Face; Fingerprint; Focus Groups; Frequencies; Goals; Hand; Health; Heating; Hip region structure; Home environment; Image; Individual; Infection; Injury; Length; Medicare; Medicine; Modeling; Monitor; Movement; Nail plate; Optics; Pain; Patient Care; Patients; Performance; Phase; Podiatry; Population; Positioning Attribute; Procedures; Process; Prosthesis; Provider; Research; Risk; Robotics; Safety; Services; Shoulder; Skin; Solutions; Speed; Structure of nail of finger; Structure of nail of toe; Supervision; Surface; Surveys; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Thrombophlebitis; Time; Toes; Tremor; Work; arm; base; college; cost; design; dexterity; digital; experience; falls; flexibility; foot; image processing; improved; innovation; medically necessary care; motor control; neglect; novel; older patient; payment; pressure; prototype; public health relevance; routine care; sensor; system architecture; tool; tungsten carbide

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An estimated 1 in 3 people over age 65 are physically unable to cut their own toenails, and 77% of those surveyed admit to difficulty in performing this essential task for routine podiatric health. On average, shoulder abduction and hip flexion decrease 5 to 7 degrees per decade from age 55, and over a degree per year from age 70. This reduced flexibility combined with diminished eyesight and motor control result in feet being one of the most neglected body parts for the elderly. Pedicures are particularly risky and dangerous for elders with arthritis and other afflictions causing reduced sensitivity in feet. While Medicare services cover routine foot care for seniors with a limited set of complications, requirements for coverage have made it difficult for many older adults to receive this service, and a quarter of all claims filed for toenail cutting lack adequate documentation to support coverage. Nail-related Medicare coverage equates to an estimated $96.8 million each year, and frequent professional non-Medicare-covered nail cutting services become increasingly costly and inconvenient for seniors. Direct caregivers tasked with performing this service face great difficulty in safely and comfortably trimming the nail. This is especially true caring for patients with limited flexibility thickened toenails, or who experience tremors. As nail changes and disorders increase in frequency with age, lack of routine nail care has been shown to heighten risk of injury, pain, infection, and other complications, significantly reduce mobility, and increase fall frequency. Surveys of currently available technologies to assist the elderly with nail trimming show limited results, and existing solutions still require substantial bending to reach their toes, or sufficien strength to squeeze clippers attached to long lever arms. There exists an unmet need to support older adults and their caregivers by providing a high precision, safe, automatic nail trimming solution that facilitates routine foot care. To provide an accurate, optimized solution and reduce struggle with this task, while ensuring safety, ASTER Labs, Inc. proposes to construct a hands-free robotic nail trimming system to assist the elderly and caregivers who tend to podiatric care. The goal is to reduce burden, physical strain, and emotional stress on elderly adults and others with limited flexibility and mobility by providing a system that accurately trims users' toenails t medically-recommended lengths and contours, while also utilizing advanced image processing and databasing techniques to provide a preliminary general assessment of nail health. The system design includes multiple redundant safety features for rapid cessation if desired by the patient or if significant toe movement is detected, as well as features to optimize comfort during device use. By providing seniors and caregivers with a novel, technically advanced, but practical toenail care tool, they will have on-demand access within the comfort of their own homes or care facilities, increasing the regularity of foot care. For this innovative concept design, ASTER Labs will utilize optical and infrared image processing techniques, as well as data fingerprinting algorithms, to create a highly unique, but practical solution for accurate in-home toenail care for the elderly.

 描述（由申请人提供）：据估计，65 岁以上的人中，有三分之一的人身体上无法剪自己的脚趾甲，77% 的受访者承认很难执行这项日常足部健康的基本任务。平均而言，从 55 岁起，肩部外展和髋部屈曲每十年减少 5 至 7 度，从 70 岁起每年减少超过 1 度。灵活性的降低，加上视力和运动控制能力的下降，导致脚成为老年人最容易被忽视的身体部位之一。对于患有关节炎和其他导致足部敏感性降低的疾病的老年人来说，修脚尤其危险。虽然医疗保险 服务涵盖为患有有限并发症的老年人提供常规足部护理，承保要求使许多老年人难以接受这项服务，四分之一的老年人 因剪趾甲而提出的索赔缺乏足够的文件来支持承保范围。与指甲相关的医疗保险每年的承保额估计为 9680 万美元，而频繁的专业非医疗保险承保的指甲切割服务对于老年人来说变得越来越昂贵和不方便。负责执行这项服务的直接护理人员在安全、舒适地修剪指甲方面面临着巨大的困难。对于灵活性有限、脚趾甲增厚或经历震颤的患者来说尤其如此。随着年龄的增长，指甲变化和疾病的频率增加，缺乏常规指甲护理已被证明会增加受伤、疼痛、感染和其他并发症的风险，显着降低活动能力，并增加跌倒频率。对目前帮助老年人修剪指甲的技术的调查显示，结果有限，现有的解决方案仍然需要大幅度弯曲才能到达脚趾，或者需要足够的力量来挤压连接在长杠杆臂上的剪刀。通过提供高精度、安全、自动的指甲修剪解决方案来支持老年人及其护理人员，以促进日常足部护理，这一需求尚未得到满足。为了提供准确、优化的解决方案并减少这项任务的难度，同时确保安全，ASTER Labs, Inc. 提议构建一个免提机器人指甲修剪系统，以帮助老年人和需要进行足部护理的护理人员。其目标是通过提供一种系统，能够准确地将用户的脚趾甲修剪成医学建议的长度和轮廓，同时利用先进的图像处理和数据库技术来提供指甲健康状况的初步总体评估，从而减轻老年人和其他灵活性和活动能力有限的人的负担、身体压力和情绪压力。该系统设计包括多个冗余安全功能，以便在患者需要或检测到明显的脚趾运动时快速停止，以及在设备使用过程中优化舒适度的功能。通过为老年人和护理人员提供新颖、技术先进且实用的脚趾甲护理工具，他们将可以在舒适的家中或护理机构中按需使用，从而提高足部护理的规律性。对于这一创新概念设计，ASTER 实验室将利用光学和红外图像处理技术以及数据指纹算法，为准确的家庭脚趾甲护理创建一个高度独特但实用的解决方案。 老年人。