Goat Really

Memo
To:

Dr. Kevorkian

From:

Matthew Draft

cc:

Michael Ly, Eiliana Ojeda, Jackson Park

Date:

November 10, 2015

Re:

Using Exoskeletons as a means to either help or replace conventional therapy

Purpose
The purpose of our proposal is to request authorization to conduct research into the possibility of
improving our patient recovery time using exoskeletal suits.
Introduction
On October 15th 2015, Dr. Kevorkian asked us to look into the possibilities of using exoskeletal
suits in conjunction with our current technology to improve patient recovery time. The emerging
technology that is human exoskeletons possesses a lot of opportunity and risks; it is our job to make a
final recommendation.
Patients whom have undergone conventional therapy had not improved much in recent years,
and we are reaching a standstill as to what we can do for them. Some treatments that we use today like
free weights are difficult for some patients. The elderly and those with constricted muscles would have
great difficulty. Lack of innovation and resources has made addressing these patients extremely taxing in
a way that is unsustainable.
Conventional therapy isn't going to work for long with more and more patients requiring our
services. We cannot keep up with a growing influx of cases with the current technology we have and we
need a new, effective, and efficient method to be able to focus on the growing demand for rehabilitation.
An exoskeleton from the company EskoBionics is made intendedly for medical use. It is used by
individuals with various levels or paralysis or hemiparesis due to neurological conditions such as stroke,

spinal cord injury or disease, traumatic brain injury and more. With medical clearance, it typically
facilitates walking for people with a broad range of motor abilities and sizes; which may include up to C7
complete, any level of incomplete SCI, and non-or pre-ambulatory individuals post-stroke (EskoBionics).
In the IT and Technology departments we have found that patients charts are being filled out in a
rushed and inaccurate manner, resulting in lower bills and fewer profits. Our medical staff is becoming
overworked and overstressed. We can reduce repetitive strain on legs and back from lifting heavy
patients as well as automate part of the charting process to reduce their responsibilities and leave them to
do their skilled labor rather than menial tasks.
Medical technology has increased the human lifespan to the point that our old technology for
rehabilitation has not been able to keep up with the increasing needs of the aging population. For this
reason we must increase the efficiency of rehabilitation and shorten recovery time.

Completed Tasks
So far we have come across some good and bad news. On the bad side, we have found that
depending on the commitment of the patient exoskeletons can have negative effects on recovery
(Biorobotics Laboratory). Also depending on the methods used in the exoskeletons they may have little to
no increase in recovery time for patients that are dedicated (Antonio J. del-Ama). The good news is that
they can reduce the cost of the health care services we provide, and increase the number of insurance
providers who will work with us (Dustin D French). Also several exoskeletons have already received FDA
approval which means we have plenty of well researched options (Dustin D French). We are also on
schedule with our original task list. We emailed the company but they never got back to us. We have
gathered a lot of sources and have processed most of them. We have decided how we are going to
organize all of our information. Given the mixed results we have so far, more research is clearly required.

Future Work

1. We will talk to the company, and use their website for primary resources. As for
secondary resources, we will google scholarly search for their peer reviews/scientific
data on exoskeletons about their effectiveness in rehabilitation.
o We tried e-mailing Eskobionics, but they did not reply back to us. So instead we
decided to conduct a survey asking students if they would be interested in using
powered exoskeletons to help recover from paralysis as a primary source. As for
secondary sources, we have secured a lot of information about Exoskeletons
from the web.
2. Choose and customize a certain style and organization for our document, so that our
entire product looks like one project and it is easy to follow and take in.
o We changed our word document to a new memo format
3. Gather resources of information that are reputable and peer-reviewed so that we can
maintain a high standard of information and documents.
o So far we have come across some good and bad news. On the bad side, we
have found that depending on the commitment of the patient exoskeletons can
have negative effects on recovery (Biorobotics Laboratory). Also depending on

the methods used in the exoskeletons they may have little to no increase in
recovery time for patients that are dedicated (Antonio J. del-Ama). The good
news is that they can reduce the cost of the health care services we provide, and
increase the number of insurance providers who will work with us (Dustin D
French). Also several exoskeletons have already received FDA approval which
means we have plenty of well researched options (Dustin D French).
4. Take important information from our sources that help us argue for the use of
exoskeletons in our company.
5. Organize this into a document structure and a PowerPoint.
6. Revise our work between each other to make sure all our contributions fit together and
maintain a single idea and purpose.
o

We have been working on this as we progressed with the research project

Task Schedule
TASK
Gathering Resources
Argue for the use of Exoskeletons
Organize
Revise

11/10

11/12

11/17

11/20

11/23

Conclusion
The only set back we have had so far was being unable to contact the company making the
exoskeleton suits. Otherwise we are right on schedule and should be ready to deliver a report and
recommendation soon.

Works Cited
Antonio J. del-Ama, Aikaterini D. Koutsou, Juan C. Moreno, Ana de-los-Reyes, Angel Gil-Agudo, and
Jose L. Pons. "Review of Hybrid Exoskeletons to restore gait following spinal cord injury." Journal
of Rehabilitation Research & Development (2012): 497.
Biorobotics Laboratory. biorobitics.eng.uci.edu. 2015. 28 10 2015.
Dustin D French, PhD,1 Robert R Campbell, JD, MPH, PhD,1 Sunil Sabharwal, MD,2 Audrey L Nelson,
PhD, RN, FAAN,1 Polly A Palacios, MSPH,1 and Deborah Gavin-Dreschnack, PhD1. "Health
Care Costs for Patients With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury in the Veterans Health Administration."
The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine (2007): 477-481.

Ekso Bionics - An exoskeleton bionic suit or a wearable robot that helps people walk again. Esko Bionics.
Web. 25 October 2015.