Cleveland Clinic-Designed System Aids Wheelchair Users

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Cleveland Clinic-Designed System Aids Wheelchair Users


Equipment Helps to Quickly, Easily Secure Chairs on Buses, Transport Vehicles

CLEVELAND, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- With the flip of a switch and the touch of a button, Cleveland Clinic researchers are helping to make wheelchair users more independent.

Researchers in the Clinic's Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation have devised a new system that quickly and easily locks wheelchairs into place inside public and para-transit vehicles, school buses and private vans. In many cases, wheelchair users are able to secure the chairs themselves without the aid of a driver or assistant.

"We are so proud of this automatic tensioning system," says, Steven I. Reger, Ph.D., director of rehabilitation technology. "It gives wheelchair users more independence while traveling and ensures them that the wheelchair will remain safely and securely locked in place despite any bumps that may occur along the road."

Here's how the system works: Once a wheelchair user has boarded a vehicle equipped with the automatic tensioning system, he simply wheels into place and hooks two back straps and two front straps to his chair to hold it into place. He then simply flips a switch to power up the tensioning system and touches a button to pull the four straps tight.

"Our process is designed to stabilize the chair in all directions," explains Tom Adams, an engineer in rehabilitation medicine who helped to design the system. "Special sensors keep the tensioning system from pulling the straps too tight and damaging the wheelchair. Also, if the vehicle should lose power, the system can be quickly detached manually."

Much of the equipment that operates the automatic tensioning system is built into the floor, so that it doesn't use up interior vehicle space. A small sidewall control box holds the power switch and activation button.

"This system benefits bus drivers and assistants as much as wheelchair users," says Vinod Sahgal, M.D., chairman of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. "These people no longer have to struggle to find straps and risk back injury by pulling the straps tight. It allows them to do their jobs more effectively."

The automatic tensioning system is being field-tested and evaluated locally on buses in Cuyahoga County and Akron. Nationally, the system is being tested in Oakland, Calif., and Louisville, Ky.

The Cleveland Clinic has partnered with Branchburg, N.J.-based Kinedyne Corp./Sure-Lok Inc. to engineer and manufacture the system. Together, the Clinic and Kinedyne have received $600,000 in funding from the National Institutes of Health for the project. Founded in 1968, Kinedyne's work with cargo control products led the company to develop some of the most advanced wheelchair securement and occupant restraint systems available worldwide. Kinedyne employs more than 300 people throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The Cleveland Clinic Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation provides health services, research and education programs for patients and health-care workers locally, nationally and internationally. The department is the center of the regional collaborative rehabilitation program representing four hospitals and two community hospitals in the Northern Ohio area. Renowned experts are available in neurology, spinal, pain, geriatric and cancer rehabilitation as well as occupational, physical, mobility, amputee, seating and body support therapies. Through its comprehensive program, the department seeks to allow rapid patient return to employment, community and recreation activities.

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, founded in 1921, integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education in a private, not-for-profit group practice. Approximately 1,100 full-time salaried physicians at The Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Florida represent more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties. In 2001, there were more than 2.25 million outpatient visits to The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Patients came for treatment from every state and from more than 80 countries. There were nearly 52,000 hospital admissions to The Cleveland Clinic in 2001. The Cleveland Clinic website address is www.clevelandclinic.org .