Page 20 - Mobility Management, September/October 2021

ATP Series
Power Base
Priorities
How Evolving Technology Is Impacting Power Wheelchair Choices
By Laurie Watanabe
LIKE ALMOST EVERYTHING IN LIFE, power wheelchair designs have changed... as have drive-wheel configurations. Seating and mobility teams have a wealth of choices... so how should they decide on an optimal system for a particular client?
How Power Bases Have Changed
Historically, front-, mid-, and rear-wheel drive configurations have each had distinct advantages and disadvantages, the latter including the fishtailing seen in front- wheel-drive power chairs and the high centering seen in mid-wheel-drive chairs. With design evolutions, are these challenges still a concern? Are today’s power base configurations more alike than they used to be?
Julie Piriano, PT, ATP/SMS, is VP, Clinical Education/Rehab Industry Affairs and the Compliance Officer for Quantum Rehab.
“I don’t think the three traditional drive-wheel configurations are any more alike today than they were in years past,” Piriano said. “However, there are more hybrid configurations and center-of-gravity adjustments that can be made to benefit from the advantages of two base configurations when the drive wheel is slightly forward
or rearward of the client’s center of mass. It would also be correct to say that the engineering advancements and design evolution of modern power wheelchairs have mitigated or at least significantly minimized many of the disadvantages of each drive- wheel configuration that were known to be true of their earlier versions.”
For example, “Fishtailing has by and large been eliminated on front-wheel-
drive chairs with enhanced electronics capabilities and the use of technology that measures angular velocity and revolutions per minute data, senses an imbalance and corrects it to allow the chair to move smoothly, even at higher speeds,” Piriano noted.
20 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2021 | MOBILITY MANAGEMENT MobilityMgmt.com
MAKING CHOICES: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/SIRTRAVELALOT