Cervical Muscle Diagnostic and Conditioning System for Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention

PROJECT SUMMARY Neck pain, whether from a traumatic event or of a non-traumatic nature, is a leading cause of worldwide disability. In the US alone, medical costs associated with neck pain are the third highest bill for health-related conditions ($88 billion spent every year). Although acute neck pain resolves spontaneously over weeks and is well managed by painkillers and muscle relaxants, 50-70% of individuals experience chronic symptoms or recurrences 1–5 years after initial neck pain resolution. Therefore, 19.1 million patients visit every year a chiropractor or physical therapist to perform exercises for neck rehabilitation. Strong evidence supports that cervical muscle training helps to relieve pain, restore range of motion (ROM), and reinforce the musculature of the neck to prevent disabilities and injuries. Nonetheless, traditional rehabilitation approaches are not effective as they rely only on a “good enough” approach rather than evidence-based methods. Current clinical guidelines involve the use of provocative tests, Cervical Range of Motion (CROM) devices, goniometers, or hands for neck disability diagnosis, and bands, hands, or weight pressure for conditioning and strengthening exercises. However, these tools provide inaccurate and inconsistent data and are unsafe and inefficient to fully resolve the problem. Orthopedic Wellness Laboratories (OWL) will change the current paradigm, introducing the first medical device based on an innovative, adjustable resistive mechanism, for accurate and efficient evaluation and rehabilitation of neck disabilities. The device consists of a head restraint configured to move in the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes linked to a multi-axis modular resistance mechanism that can be set to create resistance to the user’s cervical motion. The device utilizes advances in technology and movement metrics to provide quantitative, accurate, and real-time data of the patient neck range of motion in three planes and allows to safely and precisely strengthen specific weak or injured areas without overloading them. The research proposed in this SBIR Phase I will be focused on the feasibility assessment of OWL’s technology. In particular, OWL will develop the first multi-axis cervical muscle prototype device designed to fit individuals with different neck and head physical dimensions and range of motion. The prototype will be tested for comfort and ease of use by volunteer subjects and physical therapists, and the ability to accurately measure the range of motion in a real-life diagnosis set-up. Future SBIR Phase II will focus on the development of a product market-ready and clinical intervention tests. Successful completion of this research will result in a new tool that will enable clinicians and physical therapists to provide accurate diagnoses, create customized patient exercises, increase practice throughput, identify the potential joint, disc, or skeletal dysfunctions earlier, and increase patient compliance to the neck rehabilitation treatment.