Friday, May 2, 2025
5/2/2025
Project Pluto: A Smart Wheelchair Cushion for the Reduction of Pressure Injuries - Make It Happen Innovations LLC DBA Kalogon and key stakeholders will, in the course of the six-month project, initiate our next phase of development of a Smart Cushion that helps to prevent and treat pressure injuries. The Goal for this project is to increase accessibility for those who need it most through design and manufacturing changes which will drive down its price and increase the cushions applicability and positive health impact. Through integrating the controller into the cushion, the product will become more accessible to those in manual wheelchairs where the space to mount an external control box is often prohibitive. The Objectives are: 1) Develop a new wheelchair cushion cover that increases comfort, decreases moisture, improves weight distribution, and moves manufacturing to our local partner to create jobs for those with disabilities. 2) Progress from concept to pre-production for the valve that will shrink the size of the product and enable the control box to be integrated into the cushion. 3) Develop remote patient monitoring to give caretakers access to customer data. Anticipated Outcomes include: 1) Discovering which data is most impactful for users and caretakers, which unlocks the ability to create data-driven care plans. 2) Multiple iterations of data collection firmware that enables caretakers to remotely view the data. 3) A new valve prototype that has passed HALT testing. 4) A new cushion cover that is ready for mass manufacture by our local partners. The expected products are a fully functional wheelchair cushion with smaller control hardware enabling integration into the cushion without significant negative functional impacts.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).