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Innovative healthcare & alternative remedies
A TREKINETIC K2 OWNER IN PINNACLES NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA
ORIGINAL ULTRA LIGHTWEIGHT TREKINETIC GTE IN GRAND PRIX WHITE
6 OCTOBER 2019 • HEALTHCARE INNOVATIONS
are made of carbon fi bre, moulded to the shape of the user. T ere are two main manual models: the K-2 MK II (£3,895), particularly suitable for off -road conditions and the GT-3 MKII manual (£4,895), designed for city use. Trekinetic’s powered version, the GTE MK II power wheelchair (£9,795), weighs just 75 lbs, compared to the usual 220-330lbs. Wheelchair designers are
can make using them a struggle. A wheelchair that works well on a smooth surface, for instance, may be hard to navigate on snow or sand. Powered wheelchairs, meanwhile, are often too heavy to transport in a car, and standard-size seats can be uncomfortable to sit in. But a mix of fresh thinking and
A Pushing the boundaries
You may not be able to reinvent the wheel, but you can change how it’s used, as Kim T omas fi nds
innovative technologies is helping to change all this. T e Trekinetic range is one such example. Designed by founder and managing director Mike Spindle, who drew on his long experience of making Formula One components, the wheelchairs feature two large wheels at the front and one small one at the rear. According to Spindle, this makes them “much easier to propel”. T ey work well both on urban streets and rough terrain and the comfortable seats
lthough wheelchairs can off er liberation for people with disabilities, they often feature design fl aws that
increasingly adapting to users’ desire to lead active, independent lives. T e newly available Omeo hands- free electric wheelchair, based on the Segway design, enables users to steer and control the pace of the wheelchair using their core and upper body muscles and works on any kind of terrain. At £13,500, however, it doesn’t come cheap. A wheelchair is like a pair of shoes,
says Rachael Wallach, founder and CEO of Disrupt Disability: “You don’t use the same shoes for walking on sand as you do for walking on snow or walking indoors. And you’d fi nd it really hard to move around if you had to wear shoes that were three sizes too big.” Wallach has addressed the problem
by designing a low-cost modular wheelchair that has a central hub and fi ve swappable elements: the seat, backrest, rear wheels and axle, caster four and footplate. So you could have one wheel axle for everyday use and another for playing sport — or you could have a backrest for offi ce use, then remove it for an outing to the shops. T e 3D-printed seats come in diff erent sizes and colours, according to comfort and taste (one early user chose a white seat for her wedding day). T e fi rst modular wheelchairs will be on sale next year, but prices aren’t yet available.
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