Conclusions Of Research
Conclusions of research
Valuable first-hand knowledge of the industry in which the products will be used was gained through talking to physiotherapists and doctors. Completed questionnaires can be found in the appendix. An NHS muscular skeletal physiotherapist, Mrs R Townsend, said that the most common area she has to rehabilitate is the knee. This is most commonly done through stretches and slowly increasing joint range through the use of a theraband. Other products are available to carry out these exercises but she stated that she finds them over engineered which leads her to suggest the use of household objects like cushions to stand on to increase stability and strength and skateboards to increase knee flexibility. This leads to a gap in a market with the elderly who often don’t have equipment like skateboards and already have reduced mobility and stability and so using the cushions could be dangerous. Another gap in the market she pointed out was children, although this is a small market.
Dr E Lindell answered the same questionnaire and although she has limited experience in physiotherapy she stated that rehabilitation involves stretches and similar exercises, agreeing with Mrs Townsend. In another questionnaire more tailored to her job she states post-surgery rehabilitation is a large area for rehabilitation and that the hardest may be patients with depression or circumstances that reduce the motivation to do exercises.
Research into medical conditions that cause weakening of the leg muscles found muscular dystrophy to be a wide ranging condition affecting thousands of people in the UK. Further research was not deemed necessary as the product was to be designed for patients with ‘weakened leg muscle’ and so the cause of this weakness was not important.
Research was completed in different types of movement in the legs and feet. This led to the conclusion that the product that was to be later developed would need to be consistent to move in x ways:
1 The
Valuable first-hand knowledge of the industry in which the products will be used was gained through talking to physiotherapists and doctors. Completed questionnaires can be found in the appendix. An NHS muscular skeletal physiotherapist, Mrs R Townsend, said that the most common area she has to rehabilitate is the knee. This is most commonly done through stretches and slowly increasing joint range through the use of a theraband. Other products are available to carry out these exercises but she stated that she finds them over engineered which leads her to suggest the use of household objects like cushions to stand on to increase stability and strength and skateboards to increase knee flexibility. This leads to a gap in a market with the elderly who often don’t have equipment like skateboards and already have reduced mobility and stability and so using the cushions could be dangerous. Another gap in the market she pointed out was children, although this is a small market.
Dr E Lindell answered the same questionnaire and although she has limited experience in physiotherapy she stated that rehabilitation involves stretches and similar exercises, agreeing with Mrs Townsend. In another questionnaire more tailored to her job she states post-surgery rehabilitation is a large area for rehabilitation and that the hardest may be patients with depression or circumstances that reduce the motivation to do exercises.
Research into medical conditions that cause weakening of the leg muscles found muscular dystrophy to be a wide ranging condition affecting thousands of people in the UK. Further research was not deemed necessary as the product was to be designed for patients with ‘weakened leg muscle’ and so the cause of this weakness was not important.
Research was completed in different types of movement in the legs and feet. This led to the conclusion that the product that was to be later developed would need to be consistent to move in x ways:
1 The