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

该项目的目的是完成对运动障碍患者的进食辅助装置的市场评估。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。不幸的是，许多患有运动障碍（如痉挛、痉挛、共济失调和运动障碍）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，要么是因为突然的动作，要么是因为他们不能保持器具的直立），甚至不可能让他们自主进食。这些运动障碍与脑瘫（43000加拿大人）、脊髓损伤（118000加拿大人）、多发性硬化症（77000加拿大人）、颅脑创伤、中风（319000加拿大人）和帕金森病（55000加拿大人）等诊断有关。据研究人员估计，这项发明可以直接惠及15万加拿大人（显然世界上还有更多）。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来帮助上半身残疾的人，但我们的调查表明，目前没有设备满足运动障碍（痉挛、痉挛、共济失调和运动障碍）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。**我们的团队因此开发了一种创新的机械解决方案，允许系统在三维空间中移动，同时保持器具始终与地面平行，同时由于机械阻尼器减少了无意识运动的影响。**目的是让患有运动障碍（痉挛、痉挛、共济失调和运动障碍）的人能够自主进食。在这个项目中，技术开发是在一个丰富的跨学科团队（机械工程，职业治疗，运动机能学，物理治疗）中进行的，与潜在用户和临床专家一起使用以用户为中心的迭代方法。******************

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.******************