Page 15 - Mobility Management, September/October 2022

Pedersen also has worked with people who have weak back musculature or
a spinal cord injury. “So here, you are working to increase a person’s function,” she said. “You’re not fighting tone; it’s not a sensory issue. You’re really saying, ‘Do you need help being able to rotate and pick something up over here and then come back into position?’”
One example of a backrest line with that sort of dynamic movement is Tarta, distributed by Stealth Products in the United States. Typically placed just above the pelvis or a little higher than that,
this kind of back allows movement so
the wheelchair rider can reach back, for example. But then it guides the rider back into place. Tarta backs can also allow rotation from the rider.
“It’s a weakness issue,” Pedersen said
of wheelchair users who would benefit from that kind of dynamic movement. “You are accommodating and giving them
that range that they don’t have. They can extend, but they can’t extend that much. So now they’re extending, and they can say, ‘Wow, I can reach this ball back here and now I can throw it forward, and the back’s going to come back with me so that I’m not stuck back there.” It’s the same thing with reaching: If I wanted to reach across, [a dynamic] back will allow me to reach and then bring me back. Now I can come back across midline.”
The uniqueness of clients who could benefit from dynamic seating is part of the challenge, Lange said. For instance, for clients with extension or high tone, “You never know when they’re going to initiate, how far, how long, and with how much force. It can be different each time. That’s a trick with dynamic seating, too: You have to capture force that can be intermittent. It can sometimes last for a while. It could be more force this time and less force next time. I might have a little
rotation next time. So there’s a different pattern each time. And that’s really a chal- lenge design-wise for the dynamic compo- nent to respond to these varying degrees, travel, and patterns of movement.”
The Future of Dynamic Seating
The funding aspect of dynamic seating is still evolving, with its reimbursement still under debate, at least from a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services perspective (see sidebar).
But from a technology standpoint, what might the next generation of dynamic seating be like?
Pedersen referenced, for example, back- rests that would work with their users’ own motions. “That to me is the future of dynamic seating: To try to incorporate a person’s real movement. If they can’t get through that full range, can we have the dynamic components that are lightweight and of course inexpensive that would
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