The team of inventors

Pham Nhat Tan, a student at HCM City University of Science & Technology, who is head of the team of inventors, said the product can help legs, hands and other joints. There is also a robot skeleton that support patients’ movements.

The machine hardware includes the engine, handle, pedestal and other parts to help fix patients’ hands and legs. It also helps muscles move up and down.

The software helps physicians interact with patients. It monitors the treatment process and indicators will appear.  Doctors can watch the patients practice and adjust the practice regime from a distance.

“When patients begin practicing, they will find it very difficult to regulate the machine because their joints and muscles are very hard. Patients will practice in the passive mode, i.e. the machine will support them 100 percent,” Le Thi My Trinh, a member of the team, said.

“Later, when the joints and muscles become more flexible, users can adjust the practice regime and reduce the support level to 70 or 50 percent. In this case, patients can adjust the machine themselves, which will help patients recover sooner,” she said.

One of the advantages of the machine is that it is integrated with games apps which encourage patients to practice, thus accelerating the process of recovering neural connections.

“The games are specifically designed by us, suitable to the treatment process. These are simple games which require up and down movements. For example, players have to move aircraft to avoid barriers,” Tan said.

Tan said he got the idea for the machine after attending an innovation day for disabled children organized by the US Consulate General in Vietnam. 

Tan and his team then met Lieu Hoai An, who has cerebral palsy and has difficulty moving. They then decided to invent a machine that could help patients. 

Initially, the team invented a machine for leg and knee joints. However, as doctors said that hands need more treatment, the team finally decided to develop the product to treat both hands and legs.

Dr Nguyen Tan Tien of the HCM City University of Science & Technology has praised the product. 

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