App improving health outcomes for wheelchair users
SYDNEY: An innovative sensor app that helps improve health outcomes for wheelchair users will be piloted thanks to a $500,000 funding partnership.
The icare foundation is giving half a million dollars in funding to loop+ for the development of a prototype that will be piloted at a New South Wales hospital’s spinal unit.
The loop+ platform uses a wheelchair sensor mat that continuously measures pressure, position and general activity of users throughout the day.
This data can be accessed by wheelchair users, carers and clinicians through a mobile app to monitor and prevent common health risks such as pressure sores.
Barney Smith is interim GM of the icare foundation, a social venture established by insurance and care provider icare that funds organisations taking a fresh approach to injury prevention.
He said supporting this platform was important, as more than 85 per cent of wheelchair users would develop a pressure injury in their lifetime.
