Open Competition 1 - Information Technology

Kine-assist for Physical Therapists

Sponsor: Chicago PT, LLC (formerly Chicago PT, Inc.)

• Project Performance Period: 6/1/2003 - 12/31/2005
• Total project (est.): $1,814,626.00
• Requested ATP funds: $1,501,626.00

Rapid growth in the number of middle-aged and elderly individuals is increasing the demand for therapeutic services. Each dollar spent on physical rehabilitation in the United States--a $30 billion industry--reduces future medical costs by an estimated $11 to $35. Yet the availability and variety of these clearly beneficial services is constrained, due to the high costs and the limited physical endurance of human therapists. Chicago PT plans an 18-month project to develop and demonstrate a prototype robotic tool, the kine-assist, that could enable therapists to deliver more effective therapy to patients while significantly reducing the therapist's physical stress and fatigue over the course of the therapy session. The proposed tool would serve as a responsive partner for the therapist, proportionally amplifying their manually applied forces to a patient's body while allowing them to continue to feel the full range of the patient's musculature, forces, motion, and ability. The kine-assist has the effect of alleviating the physical stress presently experienced by therapists when they have to carry the full weight of the patient's limb when moving it through the proper motions. Additionally, information about how the patient responds to given therapies would be automatically recorded and could be used to understand what therapies work best for various conditions. If the project is successful, therapists not only would be able to provide better services to more patients due to a reduction in physical exhaustion, but they also should have improved knowledge about what therapeutic techniques work best for individual patients. A key challenge will be to develop a stable control system incorporating feedback from both the patient and therapist; the system must be able to distinguish between the therapist's intentional forces and the patient's volitional forces. Feedback controllers, specifications for modules for use with a wide variety of functional movements, and human interfaces for the therapist and patient will be developed. IDEO Chicago will be subcontracted to perform observational, user interface, and design tasks. The ATP funding is needed because Chicago PT is a new company, co-founded by professors at Northwestern University and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and the research involves too much risk and complexity for other investors. If successfully developed and commercialized, the kine-assist would be used in stroke rehabilitation facilities, where it would enable therapists to offer patients longer and more intensive sessions when needed and provide the extra assistance needed for leg rehabilitation. The project could reduce costs associated with physical therapy by 10 to 30 percent - potentially saving hundreds of millions of dollars annually on a national basis - and increase therapist productivity, while improving patient outcomes.

For project information:

Michael Peshkin, (847) 491-4630

ATP Project Manager

Barbara Cuthill, (301) 975-3273
barbara.cuthill@nist.gov