I just returned from the APTA Annual Conference in San Antonio. As I usually do at these events, I scoured the trade show floor to find out about the latest developments in products and technologies for PTs. As I met and talked with many PTs and manufacturers, I realized a common theme emerging at this year's event—inspiration for innovation. What intrigued me about the new products I saw was not only the actual products, but also the stories of the people behind the innovation.

A prime example of this theme of inspired innovation is the Moveo, a novel platform that combines the benefits of a traditional tilt table with the ability to perform active exercise. It allows patients who are incapable of supporting full body weight to participate in graded weight-bearing activity. I had the pleasure of meeting Darin Trees, the inventor of the Moveo product, and his story is inspiring. Years ago, while working with a severely burned patient in a hospital, he realized that the only way that the patient was able to stand was to have a lift team pick him up by his arms from his bed for a few seconds at a time. Lifting the patient by the arms, however, resulted in abrasive contact with the patient's skin. In addition, the patient complained about not being able to perform lower-body exercises while recovering. Perplexed by the problem, Trees conceived and built a mechanism involving pulleys that would attach to the end of a tilt table and would allow the patient to perform squat exercises without full weight-bearing on the lower body.

The innovative product was a success with his burn patient, and eventually was widely used in the hospital in which Trees worked. Realizing that he had come upon a valuable idea for a product that was nonexistent in the marketplace, Trees contacted manufacturers for possible mass production. The most inspiring part of this story is that Trees took his idea to approximately 16 different manufacturers who said no. He persevered and finally met with Chattanooga Group, Hixson, Tenn, which agreed to bring his idea to the marketplace. Trees beamed with pride as he described the satisfaction of seeing his product on the trade show floor, and most importantly, the satisfaction of helping patients with his innovation. (Check out the Moveo XP Exercise Platform at www.chattgroup.com.)

Another patient-inspired story came from Bob Nudd at Peru Industries Inc. Following a request directly from a client who was looking for something nonexistent in the current marketplace, Nudd developed a wooden rocking platform for wheelchairs. This novel product enables a wheelchair to be strapped on top, and users sit on the wheelchair to rock back and forth, as if sitting in a rocking chair. Users also can strap the wheelchair perpendicular to the wooden platform, which allows the user to sway side to side, exercising the oblique muscles in the abdomen. Nudd mentioned that it also was used by autistic clients who used the back-and-forth rocking motion to calm their nerves.

These products are just two examples of the stories I heard in which the direct inspiration for innovation was patients. Not all innovations need to be produced on such a large scale to make a difference in someone's life. What inspires you to be innovative in your daily practice? I'd love to hear your ideas and share them with our readers.

Arati Murti