Lifebloom: get-up, walk and stay in charge of your life
The current model of wheelchair placement for frail adults removes autonomy, overloads caregivers with dependency care, delays recovery and decreases the patient’s health due to inactivity.
To respond to this outdated model, Lifebloom is developing a sustainable and positive alternative for health facilities (nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, hospitals..): a model of augmented rehabilitation and autonomous walking for mobility impaired patients.
There are 132 million people in the world unable to live on their feet due to a trauma, handicap or frailty (wheelchairfoundation.org). In response to their disability, these people are placed in wheelchairs. Consequently they become functionally dependent and stay inactive for the majority of the day. This state leads to depression, sarcopenia, increased dependency care needs and overall health degradation.
The startup Lifebloom was created by the French physiotherapist Marc Bardgett and the French-Dutch engineer Damien Roche to create a positive alternative to wheelchair placement that would preserve the ability to walk and make accessible 100% of each patient’s rehabilitation potential.
Incubated since 2018 at Eurasanté and pursuing its R&D in Lille on the Institut Pasteur’s campus, the young company combines the medical field with engineering to push further away the loss of the ability to walk.
The solution actually in development is a model of augmented rehabilitation and autonomous walking where eligible mobility impaired persons keep living standing, stay in shape and remain in charge of their life. This model is built around a unique medical device that assists the users in strength, gait and balance to enable them to stand up and walk again on their own.
SEAS2Grow has worked with Lifebloom in four countries: The Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain and France.
In the Netherlands, a co-creation session was held at TanteLouise with physio- and occupational therapists from the intramural and extramural departments, the rehabilitation department and the nursing home departments. This session showed that the solution developed by Lifebloom could also be suitable in the home situation and for people working in a rehabilitation centre to return home. It was highlighted that in order to get an idea of the effect of the use, it would be important to monitor progress and the effect of the solution compare to conventional devices used (wheelchair, walkers..). For example, by measuring how much or how long someone can walk and by repeating the measurement a few days later.
For the inventors of Lifebloom, the feedback from the physiotherapists and occupational therapists was useful as it strengthened the relevance of the developments carried as well as the decision to realise medical trials to prove the efficiency of the solution.
In March 2020, a live test week was held at TanteLouise's geriatric rehabilitation centre. For ergonomic and design improvement purposes; a number of pre-selected clients gave iterative feedback on use. This method of working was repeated several times with upgrades provided in between the tests to design the best possible support.
Another business session will be held with Dutch partners in rehabilitation care. It is not yet known when this will take place.
The inventors are pursuing the development of this new model of care to make it accessible as soon as possible. The team now works with leading geriatrics and rehabilitation research and care centers in 6 different European countries, including Tante Louise. Several clinical trials will be carried in 2021.
