In clinical settings, post-surgery patients and other patients with reduced mobility often spend long times in beds, and then in chairs, during recovery. Clinicians move patients from chairs to beds as soon as they can to support their recovery, however both beds and chairs limit patients’ capacity to autonomously adjust their position. This immobility can lead to extended periods of pressure near bony prominences, increasing the risk of pressure injuries occurring. To address this issue, Dr. Bush's lab has been conducting research and developing an innovative, automatically repositioning recliner equipped with built-in feedback and a touch-screen interface. This system aims to eliminate pressure injury risk in patients by ensuring regular repositioning, even when nursing staff are not able to do so manually. The recliner’s design incorporates multiple independently moving mechanisms, which have standardized and customizable movements, to redistribute pressures across anatomical regions.
Following the assembly of an initial prototype, testing was conducted to evaluate the system’s ability to redistribute pressure on individuals of various sizes and mobility levels. The next steps of the project will focus on refining the prototype and feedback system to accommodate a wider range of users in the clinical setting. The development of this recliner will greatly impact hospital care by significantly reducing the amount of manual repositioning done by nursing staff and enhancing patient comfort while minimizing the occurrence of pressure injuries.
