Market assessment of an eating assistive device for people living with movement disorder

该项目的目的是完成对一种用于运动障碍患者的饮食辅助设备的市场评估。能够在没有照顾者帮助的情况下进食是走向自主的重要一步。不幸的是，许多患有运动障碍的人，如痉挛、痉挛、共济失调和行动不便，没有这个机会。这确实非常困难(费力，不舒服，因为突然的动作或因为他们不能保持餐具的直立而洒了很多食物)，甚至不可能自主进食。这些运动障碍与诊断有关，如脑瘫(43000加拿大人)、脊髓损伤(118000)、多发性硬化症(77000)、颅脑损伤、中风(319000)和帕金森氏病(55000)。据研究人员估计，这项发明可以直接惠及150000加拿大人(显然全世界还有更多的人)。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但活跃资源较少的人。**虽然已经开发了不同的辅助技术来帮助上半身残疾患者，但我们的调查表明，目前还没有任何设备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了。**我们的团队因此开发了一种创新的机械解决方案，允许系统在三维运动中移动，同时保持设备始终与地面平行，同时由于机械阻尼器的作用，减少非自愿运动的影响。**目标是允许运动障碍患者自主进食。在这个项目中，技术开发是在一个丰富的跨学科团队中进行的(机械工程、职业治疗、运动学、物理疗法)，使用迭代的以用户为中心的方法，与潜在的用户和临床专家一起。

The aim of this project is to complete a market assessment of an eating assistive device for people living with movement disorders. Being able to eat without the assistance of a caregiver is an important step towards autonomy. Unfortunately, many people living with movement disorders such as spasticity, spasms, ataxia and dyspraxia do not have this opportunity. It is indeed very difficult (great effort, not comfortable, spill a lot of food either because of abrupt movements or because they are not able to keep the utensil straight) or even impossible for them to eat autonomously. These movement disorders are linked to diagnosis such as cerebral palsy (43000 Canadians), spinal cord injuries (118000), multiple sclerosis (77000), cranio cerebral trauma, stroke (319000) and Parkinson's disease (55000). It is estimated by the researchers that the invention could directly reach 150000 Canadians (and obviously many more worldwide). 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 to assist people living with upper body disabilities, our investigations have shown that currently no devices meet the needs of people living with movement disorders (spasticity, spasms, ataxia and dyspraxia) either because they lack in functionality or because they are too expensive.**Our team has thus developed an innovative mechanical solution allowing the system to move in three dimensions while keeping the utensil always parallel to the ground and while reducing the impact of involuntary movements thanks to mechanical dampers.**The objective is to allow people living with movement disorders (spasticity, spasms, ataxia and dyspraxia) to eat autonomously. Within this project, the technology development is performed within a rich interdisciplinary team (mechanical engineering, occupational therapy, kinesiology, physiotherapy) using an iterative user-centered approach with potential users and clinical experts.******************