Accelerate the pre-competitive development of an eating assistive device for people living with movement disorder - Phase I

加速针对运动障碍患者的饮食辅助装置的赛前开发 - 第一阶段

• 批准号: 555592-2020
• 负责人: CampeauLecours, Alexandre
• 金额: $ 9.11万
• 依托单位: Université Laval
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Idea to Innovation
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=705986
• 关键词: Accelerate; pre; competitive; development; eating

The aim of this project is to accelerate the pre-competitive development of an assistive eating device for people living with movement disorders. Being able to eat without the assistance of a caregiver is an important step towards autonomy and critical in the context of scarcity of caregivers. Unfortunately, many people living with movement disorders do not have this opportunity. It is indeed very difficult (great effort, not comfortable, spill a lot of food) or even impossible for them to eat autonomously. These movement disorders are linked at different degree to diagnosis such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's disease, ataxia, ALS and stroke. Within a market study, Raymond-Chabot-Grant-Thornton (RCGT), has estimated the market size in Canada for the proposed technology in this proposal between 114 494 and 755 175 people, leading to a potential revenue from $114,494,000 and 755,175,000$ with a $1000 price tag, for Canada only. The ageing of the population creates more stresses for this situation since we will have to take care of more people losing autonomy but with fewer active resources. While different assistive technologies have been developed, RCGT observations and our own have shown that no devices currently meet the needs of people living with movement disorders either because they lack in functionality or because they are too expensive. Our interdisciplinary team has thus developed an innovative mechanical solution using a user-centered development methodology and iteratively designed the prototype together with potential users and occupational therapists. The objective of this project is to foster technology innovation in order to attract early-stage investment in anticipation of transferring the technology to an established Canadian company that will manufacture and sell the product. The project will focus on three main aspects: 1) features that were considered primordial by occupational therapists and users, 2) industrial design to optimize the design and improve affordability (major concern for potential partners in the field of assistive technology), 3) industrial design to improve the social acceptance of the technology.

该项目的目的是加速运动障碍患者辅助进食装置的竞争前开发。能够在没有照顾者帮助的情况下进食是迈向自主的重要一步，在照顾者稀缺的情况下至关重要。不幸的是，许多患有运动障碍的人没有这个机会。这确实是非常困难的（很大的努力，不舒服，洒了很多食物），甚至不可能让他们自主进食。这些运动障碍在不同程度上与脑瘫、肌肉萎缩症、脊髓损伤、帕金森病、共济失调、肌萎缩侧索硬化症和中风等疾病的诊断有关。在一项市场研究中，Raymond-Chabot-Grant-Thornton （RCGT）估计，该提案中提出的技术在加拿大的市场规模在114 494至755 175人之间，潜在收入从114,494,000美元到755,175,000美元，价格标签为1000美元，仅在加拿大。人口老龄化给这种情况带来了更大的压力，因为我们将不得不照顾更多失去自主权的人，但有效资源却更少。虽然已经开发了不同的辅助技术，但RCGT观察和我们自己的观察表明，目前没有任何设备能够满足运动障碍患者的需求，要么是因为它们缺乏功能，要么是因为它们太贵。因此，我们的跨学科团队使用以用户为中心的开发方法开发了一种创新的机械解决方案，并与潜在用户和职业治疗师一起迭代设计了原型。该项目的目标是促进技术创新，以吸引早期投资，以期将技术转让给制造和销售该产品的老牌加拿大公司。该项目将侧重于三个主要方面：1)职业治疗师和用户认为是原始的功能，2)工业设计以优化设计并提高可负担性（辅助技术领域潜在合作伙伴的主要关注点），3)工业设计以提高社会对该技术的接受程度。