The SmartWheel: Optimize Performance. Prevent Pain.
Your clients who use manual wheelchairs push on their handrims 2000-3000 times a day to complete activities of daily living. Because of this repetitive stress, studies show that 3 out of 4 of these clients will experience pain in their shoulder, hands, and/or wrists! Over time, this chronic pain will:
- Reduce independence and the ability to complete activities of dailiy living.
- Reduce quality of life.
- Increase medical costs.
SmartWheel data enables you and your clients to optimize wheelchair use and help root out causes of chonic pain. Here are just a few examples:
Optimize Wheelchair Set-Up to Use Less Force with Each Push
The SmartWheel allows for comparisons of the amount of forces (i.e., effort) exerted as a person pushes in wheelchairs with different set-up configurations.
- For example, the position of the rear wheel of the wheelchair with respect to the seat above it is an important component of wheelchair set-up. With the SmartWheel, a wheelchair user's performance can be compared with the rear wheel in different positions (e.g., more forward or backward).
Small changes in the set-up of a wheelchair can have a large impact on how easy or hard it is to propel a wheelchair. During the wheelchair set-up process, the SmartWheel enables the clinician to measure and detect this impact.
Use Propulsion Training to Optimize Pushing Sytle by Reducing the Force and Frequency of Pushes
The importance of learning How to Propel a Wheelchair in the most healthy and efficient way is critical for creating good habits that have important benefits: Training can be employed, for instance, to assist wheelchair users to reduce the stress on their arms by using a longer, smoother stroke, reducing their stroke frequency, and minimizing forces. This is exactly what is recommended in the SCI Clinical Guidelines.
- For example, the SmartWheel provides real-time visual feedback information including graphs that display stroke length and amount of force exerted on the handrim with each push. This real-time feedback can assist wheelchair users to maximize their propulsion efficiency and minimize forces.
Optimize Equipment Selection: Use SmartWheel Data to Justify Insurance Reimbursement
The data generated by the SmartWheel provides a quantified, concrete, and easily understood justification for wheelchair-related equipment decisions.
- SmartWheel data on the amount of force a person is able to apply to the handrim can be used to determine (and justify) whether an individual may be best suited for a manual ultralight wheelchair (as opposed to a depot chair), or whether or not that individual may need power-assist, or a power wheelchair.
In an ever-changing and challenging funding environment, concrete data and clear documentation are and will continue to be critical in the success of justifying (and getting reimbursement for) appropriate wheelchair-related equipment decisions.
Click here for a quick tour of the user-friendly SmartWheel Session Wizard. Or read more about the SmartWheel in Rehab Management, (March, 2009).
For the uses listed above, the SmartWheel has been classified by the FDA as a combination device that is exempt (Class I) from premarket notification [510(k)].
