High Tech Cane Collects Data

Grandpa’s cane is going high tech and turning into a collector of data. A company called Doctor’s Orders, which grew out of the technology, management and entrepreneurship program at the University of New Brunswick, is designing a “smart cane” that it’s developers believe will speed the recovery of knee and hip replacement patients and collect valuable data as well.

The cane that is under development assesses the weight the user places on it. Patients who are recovering from orthopedic surgery can be told how much weight they should place on the cane and advised when they’re doing it wrong.

One of the developers, Graeme Powell explained, “Approximately 88% of revision surgeries are needed because of some kind of infection in the joint after surgery. We’re targeting the other 12%.”

The device would collect the data and transmit it to the doctor or physiotherapist, letting them know if their patient was adhering to his rehabilitation schedule. “Originally, our idea was to pretty much make it something like a cane with a bathroom scale in it, but the value we’re finding now is in the data, ” said Powell. “There isn’t a retail product out there that provides this data over the full course of rehabilitation.”

The team of young inventors plans to seek regulatory approval first from Health Canada and then, later, from the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. Health Canada classifies the cane as a Class 2 medical device. Powell believes that approval for a product such as the smart cane could take about one year.