Accessible Therapy For Hand Strength & Dexterity.

Accessible Therapy: Improving Hand Strength & Dexterity At Home

REMOTE HEALTHCARE | CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY | ILLUSTRATION

This orthotic design was developed while working as a volunteer assistant to an occupational therapist.

OPPORTUNITY

Reduce non-essential hospital visits by enabling patients to complete hand dexterity and strength exercises independently at home.

OUTCOME

An orthotic exercise which can be utilised at home for either passive (wearing while completing everyday tasks) or active strength building of the hand (wearing while intentionally executing participating in repetition exercises).

USER RESEARCH

For many people, for many people, traveling to physical and occupational therapy can be a huge financial and physical burden. This concept series explores how we might design at-home hand dexterity and strength exercises that passively engage patients, reducing the number of PT visits needed while increasing the likelihood of patient engagement. This project was a result of observations as a volunteer in an out-patient occupational therapy ward. After initial observations, I decided to start this project by analysing the anatomy of the human hand through drawing so that I might better understand the problem. Anatomical illustrations below are based off of anatomy illustrations by H.V. Carter.