HEALTH SANDALS — A team of UGM students has succeeded in creating creativity in the health sector with an innovative product in the form of Loadcell-Accelerometer-based sandals to help patients with lower extremity fractures.
These sandals are designed to help patients perform weight-bearing and range-of-motion (step) exercises more precisely during the recovery process.
Maya Aida — a Health Information Management student, Vocational School, Universitas Gadjah Mada as the team leader explained the health innovation they created to overcome the difficulty of monitoring the achievement of weight bearing (WB) exercises that are often experienced by orthopedic doctors and fracture patients.
In fact, the creation of these Loadcell-Accelerometer-Based Sandals began with the complaint of one of the lower extremity fracture patients at Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta who is also an HRD UMKM practitioner who has shared entrepreneurial knowledge at UGM.
“We then raised this problem in research as part of the creativity program,” said Maya at the UGM Campus, as quoted from the official website www.ugm.ac.id, Saturday (28/9/2024).
Maya further explained that the therapeutic sandals created are equipped with load cell and accelerometer sensors that are able to measure and provide real-time feedback to users regarding the distribution of loads and the right steps on the part of the foot that has a fracture.
These sandals are also integrated with a smartphone as a software communication device for setting the percentage of recommended loads from orthopedic doctors as well as recording and monitoring the weight training carried out by patients.
“These therapeutic sandals can make it easier for orthopedic doctors and patients to monitor the achievement of weight training that has been carried out, which generally begins in the 4th week after lower leg fracture surgery until the patient is able to walk gradually without using assistive devices,” he explained.
The prototype is currently in the process of filing a patent to protect the work and encourage wider use in the medical/health world. The creativity of sandals for broken leg patients, according to him, supports improving public health and welfare.
The use of load cell technology and accelerometer sensors in this creativity opens up opportunities for further use in the development of science and technology in the health sector.
