Design of a Soft Ankle Joint Device for Correction of Inversion/Eversion Angle During Aquatic Therapy

According to statistical data, approximately 800,000 individuals across the United States have strokes each year [2]. A stroke event causes neurological and orthopedic deficits, such as weak muscles, decreased proprioception, and spasticity [6]. To regain function, increase motor skills, and retrain muscles, many stoke survivors utilize aquatic therapy as a form of rehabilitation [14]. Typically inside water, the lower body part of a person has to carry 75% less weight, This decreases the effect of gravity allowing increased joint range of motion [6], [13]. This also helps increase muscle strength as water offers about 600 more resistance than air [13]. The water temperature also helps decrease pain, spasticity, and rigidity [13]. The uniform pressure along with buoyancy contributes to an improved balance of the body [13].

An Inter-Device Accuracy Comparison of Consumer Sleep Trackers

The ability to investigate sleep is of scientific and clinical interest. Polysomnography (PSG) has long been considered the gold standard assessment for sleep physiology; however, its cost and inconvenience have spurred the development of consumer devices capable of evaluating sleep outside the laboratory. The development of dedicated consumer sleep monitoring devices, e.g., the Zeo Personal Sleep Manager, smart bands, e.g., the Microsoft Band 2 (MB2), and activity trackers, e.g., the Fitbit Charge 2 (FC2), with the ability to automatically distinguish between sleep and wakefulness has important implications for sleep research and medicine.1–3

Grasp Rehabilitator: A Mechatronic Approach

Grasping and manipulation are critical for many activities of daily living. However, current approaches to grasp rehabilitation do not measure coordination of fingertip forces nor provide metrics for feedback to the user as an aid in regaining fingertip coordination. This paper presents a low-cost mechatronic approach to design and develop a portable and commercially viable grasp rehabilitation device. The performance of the newly developed grasp rehabilitator is compared with an existing research-grade grasping device on a grip and lift task. The results suggest that the newly developed grasp rehabilitator can provide key force measurements that are equivalent to the ones provided by the research-grade grasping device, indicating its validity and potential viability for rehabilitation.

Nasal Spray Device for Administration of Two-Part Drug Formulations

Intranasal drug delivery is an attractive route to noninvasively achieve a rapid therapeutic effect, avoid first pass metabolism, and bypass the blood brain barrier. However, the types of drugs that can be administered by this route has been limited, in part, by device technology. Herein, we describe a pneumatic nasal spray device that is capable of mixing liquid and solid components of a drug formulation as part of the actuation process during dose administration. The ability to store a nasal spray drug formulation as two separate components can be leveraged to solve a variety of stability issues that would otherwise preclude intranasal administration. Examples of drugs that could be delivered intranasally by utilizing this two-part formulation strategy include biomolecules that are unstable in solution and low solubility drugs that can be rendered into metastable supersaturated solutions. A proof of concept nasal spray device prototype was constructed to demonstrate that a liquid and solid can be rapidly mixed and atomized into a spray in a single action. The primary breakup distance and angle of the spray cone were measured as a function of the function of the propellant gas pressure.

Cost Effective Laparoscopic Trainer Utilizing Magnetic-Based Position Tracking

This paper discusses the design and application of magnetic-based position tracking in surgical trainers. The utilization of magnetic-based position tracking in Laparoscopic Trainers provides a cost-effective solution to the next generation of medical education, training and evaluation. The utilization of 3D printed parts as well as off the shelf electronics allows us to maximize accuracy while minimizing design cost. Our current design costs less than $300.00 while providing results with an error of 1.474–14.265%.

Formulation and Characterization of Thermoplastic Polyurethane-Based Steroid Eluting Devices

We describe the formulation and manufacture of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)-based steroid-eluting components and the development of a versatile, material-agnostic analytical method for their rapid characterization. The impact of materials, formulation, and processing on controlled release behavior was characterized and compared to current industry standard components under physiologically relevant conditions. The combination of factors modulated drug release, offering new avenues for controlling the release of steroids from implantable medical devices.

The Use of 3D Printing in the Surgical Planning of Left Ventricular Assist Device Placement in Pediatric Patients With Non-Compaction

The use of computational modeling and 3D printing to assist in the procedural planning process for the correction of complex congenital heart malformations is becoming the standard of care. However, the use of this technology in planning the placement of ventricular support devices in pediatric patients with non-compaction has been significantly less common. We present the use of a series of models to help guide the sizing and positioning of both the inflow and outflow cannulae in a patient with left ventricular failure as an example of how these technologies can help improve patient outcomes and reduce procedural times.

A Product Design Approach to Prosthetic Design: A Case Study

Evidence of prosthetic use can be dated back to the second Punic War [1]. However, state-of-the-art devices have advanced very little, especially for individuals who need forearm and hand functionality, and have little financial support for high-end, custom robotic devices. This is particularly the case for military veterans. The prosthetics prescribed are thermally hot, heavy in weight, fit poorly, restrict mobility and are unattractive. This paper will review how the aforementioned design challenge was addressed through 3D body scanning and rapid prototyping technologies, for an undergraduate product design student’s capstone project.

A Validation Study of an Innovative Medical Program to Reconstruct and Compute the Thoracic Volume

In this study, we focus on validating the accuracy of the previously developed software, which reconstructs thoracic rib cage and thoracic volume in 3D. This software is applied in spine deformity patients to help doctors monitor and follow spine curvature and the thoracic volume variation. Five users were recruited to perform usability testing for the developed software. The usability testing shows that the performance of the thoracic volume reconstruction via our software meets the criterion set by the American Thoracic Society, which recommends an acceptable error of ±3% for the respiratory measurement. In addition, the user operation results were analyzed through a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), without replication, statistical method. The outcome indicates the reconstruction accuracy of the software is satisfactory. In the reproducibility study, the result shows that the performance of the developed software is superior to previous literature and the reconstruction is clinically relevant.

Design Tradeoffs in the Development of a Wearable Soft Exoskeleton for Upper Limb Mobility Disorders

This paper investigates the tradeoffs between design variables important for the development of a mobility support soft exoskeleton for horizontal shoulder adduction. The soft exoskeleton utilizes discreet shape memory alloy (SMA) spring actuators to generate the required torque to move the arm segment, while preserving the qualities of a soft, wearable garment solution. A pilot benchtop test involving varying power input, actuator anchor position, actuator orientation, and added weight, was investigated to evaluate their effects against the degree of motion the soft exoskeleton allows. The results show that the power input, actuator anchor position, and simulated limb weight each affect the ultimate horizontal adduction angle the exoskeleton is able to induce. Further, the project highlights a crucial point in regard to the tradeoffs between functionality and wearability: when actuator orientation was investigated, we found a decrement in functionality (as measured by maximum achievable horizontal adduction angle) when the actuators were constrained close to the body. This shows that when aiming to improve the hypothetical system’s wearability/usability, the effective torque that can be generated is reduced. Together these findings demonstrate important design considerations while developing a wearable, soft exoskeleton system that is capable of effectively supporting movement of the body while maintaining the comfort and discreetness of a regular garment.