Grant: Idea to Innovation

Peripheral appendage swelling is a common consequence of intense physical activity in most sports but is more prevalent in high-performance athletes such as baseball pitchers, cyclists, and tennis players. Without proper treatment could result in detrimental diseases such as Paget-Schroetter syndrome. Common treatments include cooling, massages, and stretching, among which massages have proven highly effective and ideally should be performed daily. To meet this need, intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) systems that can offer sequential compression from the distal end to proximal sections have emerged as an effective stay-home or on-site treatment. The state-of-the-art IPC-based systems in the sports market for swelling treatment such as Recovapro Air and NormaTec 3, rely on large, laminated bladders that expand radially upon inflation to apply compression. The large bladders limit the displacement and require multiple airlines and solenoids for sequential inflation resulting in bulky, heavy control boxes, and noise. In addition, these systems provide limited hand compression, often not providing adequate finger compression. The research team has developed a novel microfluidics-enabled IPC system to address the above problem. The core technology is the integration of a coiled pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) that is capable of providing double-action compression (length-wise contraction resulting in constriction and radial compression) and a series of microfluidic constrictors that enables sequential inflation without the need for multiple airlines and solenoids. This innovation allows a battery-powered, portable, and low-noise control box. Close engagement with our external partners including the Armoury clinic, MSK clinic, the University of Waterloo Warriors Baseball team, the Wilfrid Laurier University Hawks Baseball team and Myant, will ensure the proposed system is designed to be user-friendly. The planned beta trials and application testing results will help establish target market vertical(s), the timing of a possible startup company's creation and a go-to-market strategy.