These past two weeks I have been working on a new iteration of the leg enclosure. When meeting with Swamy, I realized that we were looking at the leg enclosure through the incorrect mindset. We were basing our leg enclosure design off of different knee braces that can be found in convenience stores like Walgreens. However, I realized that the purpose of those knee braces are to restrict movement, not allow it. We realized that we needed to redesign our leg enclosure to something that allows movement. Below is a brief sketch of the new iteration.

Instead of using a flex sensor, we may use a device to measure the angle of bend since the flex sensor has not been giving us very accurate readings. However, we are going to try out several different devices to measure the flex. This iteration allows for a lot more movement and is bulky. We will also be using double loop slider buckle and velcro to secure the device to the leg. I am working on the enclosure now so pictures of it will probably appear in the next blog post.

In the summer, we will be doing a usability study so that we can work out the kinks of usability. Since we will be doing a study this summer, we will be writing the consent form next week and also get started on the IRB paperwork.

This week we discussed the terms of compliance and concordance. Compliance is when a patient complies with what the doctor advises. Concordance is when both the doctor and the patient come up with acheivable goals to get better together and research shows that this works better and helps patients recover more quickly. Thus, after a usability study, a concordance study would follow to show that the device actually promotes concordance.

We have a lot of work ahead of us but I think this new iteration will be successful.