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R5. Clinical and Functional Implications of Seating Standards and Guidelines

Project Director: Stephen Sprigle, PhD, PT

Co-Investigators: Chris Maurer, MSPT, ATP, Shepherd Center; Bryan Hobbs, BSME, MSEE; Sharon Sonenblum; MS, BME

Clinical Partners: Shepherd Center, Wesley Woods Center

Timeframe: Years 1-2 (24 months)

Specific Aims:

The wheelchair seating system is primarily a functional system. This system has obvious medical and health impacts, but the need to do things while seated is a paramount consideration during selection. Clinicians have some techniques to assist them in assessing tissue integrity issues but are lesser equipped for determining the functional impacts of the seating system during the evaluation, selection, and fitting processes. Standards and equipment categorization are supposed to assist clinicians in selecting appropriate equipment. While standards and guidelines should not be used as the sole driver for selecting a device, they can be tools to help clinicians narrow the choices of potential products. Information is needed to help clinicians interpret standardized test results in order to apply them to their clients.

This task will study the relationships between standardized measures of wheelchair cushion performance and the actual impact on wheelchair users. The Specific Aims include: 1) measurement of cushion performance using standardized test methods (bench tests), 2) measurement of posture, function, and load distribution of wheelchair users as they sit upon cushions, and 3) determination of relationships between standardized test methods and actual performance. Project findings will be fed directly into Project D5 to develop new tests and modifications of exiting test methods to better reflect actual performance

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