Researchers from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, received a one-year, $50,000 grant from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (CTSI) to evaluate how patient perception affects the success of prosthetic and orthotic lower-limb devices. The Clement Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Milwaukee, will be one of the research sites.
“When prosthetic and orthotic devices are engineered, patient perception is not typically part of the design process,” said primary investigator Joseph Schimmels, PhD, PE, professor of mechanical engineering at Marquette.
In this study, a multidisciplinary team of engineers, clinicians, and psychologists will evaluate how patients using these devices perceive and evaluate their quality, and how those perceptions can be incorporated into engineering design criteria for improved patient acceptance.
