Wheelchair Diffusion blog

According to the developers, Zinger is an ultralight wheelchair power system that transforms any ultralight manual wheelchair into a hill climbing, grass cruising, high performance powerchair.

It clamps into nearly any ultralight chair and removes instantly for when power is not needed. It makes hill climbing and grass cruising a cinch for the manual wheelchair user without losing the manual function or athletic look of the ultralight wheelchair.

The Zinger has a top speed of 9 mph with an actual range of 14 miles and adds only 18 pounds to the weight of the wheelchair.

The Zinger is patented with further patents pending but is not yet licensed to any manufacturer. The developers are presently in the process of attracting a manufacturer for this product.

You can get more information and view a product video at:
http://www.patentproducts.org/Site_PPC/Inventions/Entries/2008/1/15_Motochair_powered_wheelchair.html

This is about as green as it can get. The Wheelchair Cab from Lightfoot Cycles is a conversion of their popular Peditruck.

It takes a walker up front to power the pedal cycle but the back end trailer is all wheelchair carrier space with a folding ramp for access.

There should be some good applications for a device like this. Getting wheelchair users from place to place in large areas, rentals in amusement parks or other large tourist attractions, or perhaps for getting wheelchair users from those king-sized parking lots to their destination point. Best of all, just for fun in touring around or on an outing with a special and willing friend.

The Wheelchair Cab is so basic and so "why didn’t I think of it" that it doesn’t take any explanation or in-depth description. What you see is what you get.

You can get more information on Wheelchair Cab at the Lightfoot Cycle website at:
http://www.lightfootcycles.com/

A little something off the beaten path. Dick Peterson, who has multiple sclerosis, does a little winemaking in his Cape Cod kitchen. He has learned to make simple, yet tasty wines with a minimum amount of effort.

The article includes recipes for Coffee Wine, Mead, Cranberry Wine, Apple Wine, Pineapple Wine, and of course the ever popular Grape Wine.

Check out Dick’s table top winery at:
http://www.liftup.com/Wine.html

I almost missed this bit of news claiming that Uncle Sam’s investigators set up bogus medical equipment companies that ultimately received approval from Medicare.

“Government investigators set up two fake companies to sell medical equipment like wheelchairs. Even though the fictional suppliers had no clients and offered no inventory, a report to Congress stated that these companies were approved by Medicare.”
Read the story at DotMed News

Am I surprised by all of this? Not at all. Many Medicare watchers have believed for some time that Medicare is in some ways similar to the dinosaur- Big body with a peanut sized brain driving the massive machinery, and it shows. From the same article:

“Medicare has admitted to making about $1 billion in improper payments of the $10 billion spent in the year that ended in March 2007 on wheelchairs, prosthetic devices, canes and other equipment, partly because of fraud, according to the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress.”

Do I approve of fraud? Of course not, but Medicare has for some time been externalizing the problem and playing it out as if they are innocent victims. In fact we the tax paying public are the victims, as are the honest Medicare clients and vendors who fall victim to Medicare’s ever increasing Machiavellian philosophies on how best to provide funding. It’s difficult to think of Medicare as a victim when their lack of due diligence is at the core of some of the problems.

Kudos to Uncle Sam and the GAO for so neatly getting over on Medicare. They have confirmed what so many people have suspected for so long. But it’s one thing to uncover vulnerabilities and quite another fixing them. Dinosaurs are big, sloppy, and sure as heck hard to control. Let’s see how this plays out.

Tropic Thunder may have crossed over the line in its desire to entertain. This from United Spinal Associaiton General Counsel.

People we like – Stiller, Spielberg, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. make us want to go to the movies. They probably don’t realize that they had the power to slow the self-empowerment and lessen the self-esteem of people who are our friends. Consider the hurt of the parents of intellectually disabled kids listening to a generation of teens saying “going full retard.”

Read the entire statement:
http://www.unitedspinal.org/2008/08/12/tropical-thunder-insensitive-and-wildly-innappropriate/

I get a number of questions related to safety and standards when transporting a wheelchair user in a vehicle. These are tough issues since many of the standards that apply are not mandatory but voluntary.

The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wheelchair Transportation Safety (RERC WTS) is the top source for information on this subject. They have information for consumers, prescribers, manufacturers and trasnporters on their site. They are the number 1 authority on the subject.

Their mission:
“The mission of the RERC WTS is to build on the accomplishments of the past RERC to make measurable improvements in transportation safety, usability, and independence for people who remain seated in their wheelchairs when traveling in public, school, and private motor vehicles. The research and development portion of our program includes six project areas that address many transportation issues confronted by wheelchair users, including entering and exiting vehicles and appropriate levels of wheelchair crashworthiness, wheelchair securement, and occupant restraint in different types of vehicles and transportation modes. Development and implementation of national and international voluntary industry standards, transfer of proven concepts in new technologies and procedures to the real world, and dissemination of new and existing knowledge to key stakeholders are also fundamental activities that are critical to the goals of the RERC WTS.”

You can find all sorts of great information on their website at:
http://www.rercwts.pitt.edu/RERC_WTS2_Intro/RERC_WTS2_Intro.html