iPAM, a robotic system to aid recovery after a stroke
Medipex’s NHS Innovations Competition Award Ceremony 2008 was held at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, which was attended by more than 150 people from the NHS, academia and industry from around the region. A total of £ 8 000 in prize money was awarded to the winning finalists in each of the four categories to help develop their ideas further.
Overall winner and the winner of the Assistive Technology and Rehabilitation category was a team led by Bipin Bhakta from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for the development of IPAM, a robotic system to aid recovery after a stroke. IPAM allows patients to undergo additional therapeutic exercise with minimal input from the therapist and helps to address the shortage of hands-on therapy available to stroke patients in the UK.
iPAM stands for intelligent pneumatic arm movement and is a robotic system for assisting stroke patients to undertake independent therapeutic arm exercise. iPAM addresses the shortage of hands-on therapy available to most stroke patients in the UK. By enabling patients to undertake extra controlled and interactive exercise as part of their rehabilitation treatment, it ensures the intensity of rehabilitation is maintained. Increasing intensity has the potential to accelerate recovery of voluntary arm movement leading to greater functional independence and reduce care costs for people with stroke.
Twelve months on from the Medipex 2008 Innovation Awards we have secured further NIHR funds which will enable us to refine the hardware design, enhance the control system and undertake an evaluation with stroke patients in an NHS clinical setting. This work is being undertaken by an established multidisciplinary research team, comprising NHS doctors, therapists, mechanical engineers, computer scientists, psychologists and Industrial partners. People with stroke and their spouses/carers (through Yorkshire Rehabilitation Technology User Group - RTUG) have been involved in all stages of the development of iPAM.
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