Pad Place

Facilitating Electrode Placement for Physical Therapy

Created by: Anna George, Aakash Kottakota, Connor La Marca, John Marsala and Ritesh Shrivastav

Motivation

Electrical muscle stimulation, involving the use of stim pads, is often prescribed for stroke recovery and joint injuries. It is included in 10% of all physical therapies.

2/3 of our surveyed users struggle with properly placing the pads, which leads to adhesive deterioration.

“Electrodes are reusable, sometimes they are used too many times, the gel starts wearing off and then the usable surface area will decrease”

- Jeremy Dunlap, Physical Therapist

Problem Statement

People have difficulty properly placing stim pads to get a strong and accurate connection, which can lead to rapid deterioration of the gel adhesive on the pad and prolong treatment. Even though current guides and instructions are vague and ineffective, there does not exist a physical guide to help patients place the pads.

Human-Centered Design

The Pad Place is designed for bodybuilders and physical therapy patients who have been prescribed stim pads for muscle stimulation and recovery. User and expert feedback drove key revisions such as the use of slap bracelets for a better securing mechanism for our plastic template and stopping work on the mesh prototype because of safety concerns.

The Pad Place In Action!

How It Works

System Diagram

Design Goals and Results

From 30 user tests, users preferred the plastic template because it was easier to place and told them exactly where to put the pads

The total cost of the plastic template design is $1.75

The durability testing of the design is in progress

Quantitative Analysis

We developed an analytical method to determine the accuracy of pad placement with each template.

We first asked users to find the placement that gets the strongest connection using the traditional method—by removing and replacing the pad repeatedly until correct—and then traced and cut the proper location of the pad in the template. Before the pads were removed, we traced the pad with an invisible ink pen. After a 15–30-minute wait period, we asked the user to put on the template and place the pads. We then removed the template and used a dial caliber to measure the distance between the edge of the pad and the marking from the invisible ink pen (revealed with a UV light).

Forearm

0.163" margin of error in 6 user tests

Cost: $1.75

Back

0.263" margin of error in 8 user tests

Cost: $5.88

Knee

0.113" margin of error in 8 tests

Cost: $5.50

Future Plans

Create a tool to easily cut holes in plastic template
Expand array of sizes of templates
Create more templates for use in different areas of the body

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Samosky and the Art of Making staff for their unwavering support during this project. We would also like to thank physical therapists Dr. Jeremy Dunlap and Dr. Tessa Murray for their expert guidance and insight into stim pad use.