Grant: Project Grant

Pressure ulcers, also known as bed or pressure sores, are a serious health care problem. They are gaping wounds that break through the skin, fat and muscle and take a very long time to heal. Pressure ulcers are common in people who are unable to move on their own. The elderly, people in coma, have a spinal cord injury, have heart failure, or even people who undergo long surgeries can get a pressure ulcer. Also, not only do pressure ulcers take many months to heal, they cost the health care system a lot of money. Canada spends more than $3 billion on treating pressure ulcers each year! Sadly, pressure ulcers can also be deadly. More than 60,000 people die every year in the US from pressure ulcers. Even Superman (the actor Christopher Reeve) died from an infected pressure ulcer. Nurses and doctors try very hard to prevent pressure ulcers but they do not have effective methods to do so. We realized that the reason most healthy people do not get pressure ulcers is because they 'fidget,' that is, they periodically flex their muscles without knowing it. These fidgeting movements prevent pressure ulcers from forming when we sit or lie down for long periods of time. We have developed a simple device that helps people who cannot fidget to fidget. The goal of this project is to test if our device can prevent pressure ulcers in patients who are in hospitals. If we can, patients will be healthier and get better faster. We also want to see how much money our device will save the health care system because there will be less pressure ulcers. We believe that we can save the health care system large amounts of money and improve the quality of life for people who are at risk of developing pressure ulcers.