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There is nearly a 1 in 3 chance you will have an injury to your rotator cuff at some point in your life. If you perform shoulder exercises without proper posture, you can make it worse, a symptom known as shoulder impingement. The ShrugNoMore is a simple, lightweight, wearable device designed to prevent shoulder impingement by alerting the user of improper shoulder posture. We are currently validating its performance and planning clinical testing with promising initial results. However, we need funding for prototyping, clinical trials, and traveling to our potential users. The future of ShrugNoMore will extend beyond shoulder injury to workplace ergonomics and everyday actives where poor posture leads to long-term problems.
To continue our research the following main goals need to be reached:
Reaching these goals will allow us to obtain patients for clinical trials and obtain more feedback from more therapists. The feedback will be used to better understand the market and further posture uses.
Rotator cuff tears are estimated to affect nearly one-third of the US population. Most often, therapy prevents surgery. Part of proper therapy is maintaining good shoulder posture, namely, avoiding compensatory shoulder hiking that causes shoulder impingement. Shoulder impingement can wind up causing further problems.
Most people are unaware of shoulder hiking and have a difficult time spotting it. Therapist training can help. But the real healing occurs outside the clinic where there’s simply no effective option for telling people if they have improper shoulder posture.
Initiated from a collaboration between Seton clinicians and Mechanical Engineers at UT, our solution is a simple, inexpensive, and wearable mechanical device that provides auditory feedback during shoulder hiking. The device makes a “snapping” noise when the user excessively shoulder hikes and then snaps again when proper posture is restored. This device can be worn all day by using telectrode pads (EKG/ECG pads). The device can be worn underwater and under clothes all day.
The ShrugNoMore is barely visible underneath clothing.
We’ve received very positive anecdotal feedback from patients and therapists so far, but our current goal is to quantitatively validate its sensitivity and accuracy, and then clinically validate. Our validation consists of motion capture on healthy individuals (see video). The clinical validation will take place with our clinical partners in Austin on patients recovering from shoulder surgery.
To increase this device's exposure among physical and occupational therapists, we’ll need to travel to clinics, conferences and trade shows.
If you have musculoskeletal issues caused by poor posture, or you want to prevent them, there’s a good chance you’ll want this. We’ve identified a number of other target uses, as seen in this video. This is a simple, inexpensive and portable technology. Not only will it help individuals directly, but its improvement on the efficiency of care will reduce some of the ballooning costs of healthcare.
Check out news about our device from a UT article and from a Silicon Hills article! For other information regarding UT engineering rehabilitation, check out the UT CARE website!
Thank you for your contribution and for believing in simple solutions.
Thank you for your contribution and acknowledging the importance of correct posture.
Your donation is generous and leads us to our goal. A prototype will be sent so you too can see the usefulness of our device.
Project Lead perks + for locals, a group lab tour with the other Mentors or at your own expense to visit Austin
Mentor perks + a personal lab tour with up to 5 of your own guests
Co-PI perks + a customized shoulder assessment with motion capture technology
PI perks + a complete gait assessment with motion capture technology
