Mobile patient support chair
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current patient support chairs and shower chairs are difficult for elderly carers with low or no upper body strength to use, as they require significant effort to assist patients with activities of daily living, especially in accessing areas like the back, buttocks, and legs, and often lack sufficient support and access features, particularly in bathrooms with steps or lips.
Innovation Solution
A mobile patient support chair with a lockable pivot mounting arrangement and rotation assistance, allowing the chair to be easily rotated into various positions without requiring upper body strength, along with adjustable support panels and a step-climbing wheel apparatus to navigate steps, ensuring full access and support for patients during bathing and hygiene.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a shower chair is designed to provide full access to patient's body areas (back, buttocks, legs), then the carer can properly assist with hygiene, but the chair structure becomes complex and difficult to operate for elderly carers with low upper body strength
Solution Approach 1:
The chair is divided into multiple independent support panels (backrest panel, seat panel, leg rest panel) that can be individually adjusted and positioned. Each panel can be independently manipulated to provide access to different body areas without requiring the carer to move the entire chair structure, reducing operational complexity while maintaining access capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The chair incorporates dynamically adjustable support panels that can be moved between multiple positions (upward, downward, forward, backward) to accommodate different patient positions and carer needs. This dynamic adjustability allows the chair to adapt to various hygiene tasks without requiring complex reconfiguration of the entire device.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the chair is designed to be rotated into various positions for accessing different body areas, then full patient access is achieved, but the rotation mechanism requires significant upper body strength that elderly carers lack
Solution Approach 1:
The chair incorporates a counterweight mechanism that balances the chair's weight during rotation, reducing the force required by the carer to reposition the chair. The counterweight system compensates for the gravitational force acting on the chair and patient, allowing elderly carers with limited strength to easily rotate the chair into various positions for accessing different body areas.
Solution Approach 2:
A mechanical intermediary system (gear mechanism or pulley system) is introduced between the carer's input force and the chair's rotation. This intermediary mechanism multiplies the carer's limited input force to achieve the necessary rotational movement, reducing the direct force requirement while maintaining adaptability to various positions.
3Reliability
If support panels are made fixed and stable for patient safety, then patient support is reliable, but access to patient's body areas becomes difficult for carers
Solution Approach 1:
The support panels are designed with a dynamic locking mechanism that allows them to be easily adjusted between fixed and movable states. During patient support, the panels lock into fixed positions for reliability and safety. During hygiene tasks, the panels can be unlocked and repositioned to provide carer access, then re-locked to maintain stability. This dynamic capability resolves the contradiction between fixed stability and operational flexibility.
4Device complexity
If the chair structure is simplified for ease of use by elderly carers, then the device becomes easier to operate, but it cannot provide sufficient support and access features for comprehensive patient hygiene
Solution Approach 1:
The chair is segmented into multiple independently adjustable support panels rather than a single complex structure. Each panel can be individually positioned to provide the necessary support and access, achieving comprehensive adaptability through simple, modular components that are easier to operate than a monolithic complex structure.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 1C~1D
AI summary
A mobile patient support chair to assist in bathing of a patient by a carer with little or no upper body strength comprises a chair pivotally mounted in a support frame comprised of four legs each ending in a wheel. The chair frame comprises groups of support panels which can be locked in support positions and rotated through 90 degrees to provide access to the patient's legs, buttocks and back. Additionally the chair is balanced to allow easy rotation into a fully backwards lying position, and a fully forward lying position. In the fully forward lying position flexible retaining strips are placed across the patient to retain them in place. Additionally the wheels may be step-climbing wheels to assist in climbing small steps found in bathroom entrances and shower cubicles.