MEDICA VISION: A Smiley Face if Everything Goes Well

Since 1999, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has held a competition for innovation in medical technology. In 2005, a project proposal from a team at the University of Ulm won the prize. Subsequently, a walking trainer for use at home was developed and entered into the clinical phase immediately after the MEDICA. 22/11/2008

Winner 2005: The walking trainer;
© Messe Düsseldorf 2008

Getting to this point means that the project efforts have already achieved quite a bit. Not all of the in total 112 competition winners over the last ten years have successfully carried out their ideas: at least 13 percent were not at all successful and 28 percent were only partly so. However, this should not be valued negatively, Claudia Herok of the BMBF believes: "In research, failure must be allowed. Otherwise it would not be research."

The walking trainer still has to stand the test of the clinical trial. "Right after the fair ends, the prototype currently exhibited at the stand will be sent to a patient who will train with it for eight weeks. This way, we can measure if and how much exercise with the device helps", explains engineer Markus Knestel of the University of Ulm. By training with this device, paralyzed individuals are expected to improve or restore their capability to walk. Studies have shown that people whose nerves in the spinal cord were partially disconnected can relearn movements. Sensory stimuli administered to the sole of the foot, the joints and the hip can improve damaged motor abilities. The stimuli are triggered through movement and through the pressure of body weight onto the sole.

Similar walking trainers are already in use in hospitals. They are huge, and allow the patient to stand upright with the help of a care worker in order to be positioned so that their bodyweight pushes down onto the sole of their foot. The University of Ulm’s apparatus, however, is a home trainer. It is meant to enable the patient to continue an intensive course of walking training after being released from the hospital. Therefore, it is smaller and lighter than the usual hospital contraptions and fits into a van and at home can be stored away when not in use.

First and foremost: the patient is positioned safely in it and does not need to be held by another person while still receiving all necessary stimuli to the ankle, knee and hip joints. Because the patient lies inside the contraption, the sole of the foot does not receive any stimuli through body weight anymore. This is solved with a "stimulative shoe". The foot of the patient gets fixed into the shoe where cylinders run across the sole and release the sensory stimuli.

In order to stimulate the joints, legs and hips get moved by the apparatus. The home trainer measures how much strength the patient musters up himself. Then, the device automatically adds only the remaining strength needed to complete the movement. If the machine is called on to exert less force in a training session than in the previous one - meaning that the patient was able to apply more pressure himself - then the patient receives praise: a happy smiley face appears on the machine’s display.

MEDICA.de