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）：估计有三分之一的65岁以上的人身体上无法剪自己的脚趾甲，77%的受访者承认难以执行这项日常足病健康的基本任务。平均而言，从55岁起，肩关节外展和髋关节屈曲每十年减少5至7度，从70岁起每年减少1度以上。这种灵活性的降低，加上视力和运动控制的下降，导致脚成为老年人最被忽视的身体部位之一。对于患有关节炎和其他疾病的老年人来说，修脚特别危险，因为这些疾病会导致脚部敏感性降低。虽然医疗 服务涵盖了老年人的日常足部护理与有限的并发症，覆盖范围的要求，使许多老年人难以接受这项服务，四分之一的所有 因剪脚趾甲而提出的索赔缺乏足够的文件证明承保范围。与指甲有关的医疗保险覆盖范围相当于每年估计9680万美元，而频繁的专业非医疗保险覆盖的指甲切割服务对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很大困难。这是特别真实的照顾病人有限的灵活性增厚的脚趾甲，或谁的经验震颤。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，显着降低流动性，并增加跌倒频率。对目前可用技术的调查显示，帮助老年人修剪指甲的效果有限，现有的解决方案仍然需要大量的弯曲来达到他们的脚趾，或者需要更大的力量来挤压连接到长杠杆臂的指甲剪。存在通过提供便于常规足部护理的高精度、安全、自动指甲修剪解决方案来支持老年人及其护理者的未满足的需求。为了提供一个准确的，优化的解决方案，并减少与此任务的斗争，同时确保安全，ASTER实验室，公司。建议建立一个免提机器人指甲修剪系统，以协助老年人和照顾者谁往往足部护理。目标是通过提供一种系统来减少老年人和灵活性和移动性有限的其他人的负担、身体紧张和情绪压力，该系统将用户的脚趾甲精确地修剪成医学推荐的长度和轮廓，同时还利用先进的图像处理和数据库技术来提供对指甲健康的初步总体评估。该系统设计包括多个冗余安全功能，可在患者需要时或检测到脚趾明显移动时快速停止，以及优化器械使用期间舒适度的功能。通过为老年人和护理人员提供一种新颖的、技术先进的、但实用的脚趾甲护理工具，他们将在自己舒适的家中或护理设施内按需获得，从而增加足部护理的规律性。对于这个创新的概念设计，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，创造一个非常独特的，但实际的解决方案，为准确的家庭脚趾甲护理， 老人