Market research study proposal for an assessment of market opportunities for CP-scan: a novel cardiovascular & postural control system interactive scanning device.

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Fainting and falls can have serious health impacts, especially in the elderly. A change in position like goingfrom lying down in bed or from sitting to standing causes blood to drain away from the head and pool in thelegs. If your body does not respond fast or great enough to this challenge you will feel dizzy and possibly faint.If this occurs in bed the fall could be relatively harmless, but if occurs near stairs or a hard tile floor the fallcould be fatal. In healthy individuals, the normal response involves the "whole-body" and uses thecardiovascular and balance functions to adjust for this change. However, a range of situations, from normalaging to illness and neurological disorders (Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, Stroke) can interfere with thisprocess producing a higher rate of faints and falls. An ability to detect and predict causes of these situations canlead to successful remedial actions with substantial savings in healthcare costs. The technology developmentfor the Cardio-Postural Scanner started at SFU (Andrew Blaber, Kouhyar Takavolian and Alexandre Laurin).This development has resulted in a device, not dissimilar from a bathroom scale, which can measure threeseparate body signals: cardiovascular function, postural sway and leg muscle activity. Combining these signalsleads to response index, unique to this technology, which can be used to inform recovery, training andmaintenance plans. The assessment itself is non-intrusive and involves a short sitting and standing test.Hardware and software combine these signals to provide information on the individual body component, butalso provide a new assessment based on how these systems respond together. Together these measurementsallow for a concise analysis for at-risk individuals. By correctly intervening with appropriate measures, overallcare costs can be reduced.