A team from Canada has developed a hand-stabilising glove designed to assist people with Parkinson’s Disease and Essential Tremor.
The glove, called Steadi-Two, is inspired by a design used to stabilise buildings against earthquakes, called magnetic tuned mass damping.
The Steadi-Two device uses a magnet-based system designed to move in the opposite direction of a person’s tremor, to stabilise the wrist and forearm and minimise tremors.
Developer of Steadi-Two and civil engineer, Mark Elias says he learned to stabilise buildings during his studies at the University of Toronto.
“I decided to apply the same principles to hand tremors,” he said.
Parkinson’s Awareness Month
April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month and according to the ‘Shake it up Australia Foundation’, this disease affects 100,000 Australians, with 38 people being diagnosed every day.
Parkinson’s Disease is only one cause of hand tremors.
Research from St Vincent’s Hospital estimates that in excess of 900,000 people in Australia live with some form of tremor on a daily basis.
While research continues to find a cure for Parkinson’s Disease and other forms of tremors, there are medicines and surgeries that can treat tremors in some people.
Unfortunately, these treatments do not work for everyone and the cost of certain treatments or the side effects of others means there are too many people still suffering.
Due in Australia in June 2022, Steadi-Two is a possible non-medical alternative to improve the quality of life of those affected by hand and wrist tremors.
Steadi-Two will be available from Healthport, an Australian-based medical wearable supplier.
