Florida professor plans to update wheelchair design

From The Independent Florida Alligator:

A UF professor has a handle on wheelchair technology.

Mark Tillman, an associate professor in the College of Health and Human Performance, said he received federal funding for a research project that could lead to the creation of handles for manual wheelchairs that would allow users to propel themselves without pushing on wheel frames.

The handles, which have been designed but not built, would be bolted to the wheelchair, Tillman said. Unlike in an electric wheelchair, users would still use their body to move the chair by pushing and pulling the handles.

Tillman said manual-wheelchair users often suffer from shoulder pains because they constantly are moving their arms back into a strained position to propel the chair.

The handles are designed to help reduce shoulder pain by keeping users’ arms in front of them, Tillman said.

“The idea is that your joints will be in a more neutral position,” he said.

Orit Shechtman, an associate professor in UF’s department of occupational therapy, and Scott Banks, an assistant professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, will be working with Tillman on the project.

Tillman said he and the other professors hope to create a product that can be applied to a current wheelchair model or manufactured as part of a completely updated wheelchair model.

He said the handles could be customized for individual chairs.

The National Institutes of Health awarded funding for the project through the Basic to Clinical Collaborative Research Pilot Program in January, Tillman said.

Tillman said the handles will take about a month to manufacture and will be placed on an existing lab chair in the department of applied physiology and kinesiology.

Tillman and his team will conduct a study with 24 wheelchair users examining posture, wrist position and physical exertion when using the device.

“Ultimately, we’ll want to have them have less pain, but it would be nice if they could have less pain and not be using extra energy,” Tillman said.

Richard Nelson, coordinator of the Disability Resource Center and an electric-wheelchair user, said the handles could be a tremendous advancement for those with the appropriate upper-body strength.

He likes the sense of independence that the electric wheelchair gives him because it’s hard for him to use a manual wheelchair.

“If this device, this new style of wheelchair provides that sense of independence to even one user then I think that it’s a damn good product,” Nelson said.