Vet lobbies to halt innovative wheelchair’s end
By Philip Grey - The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle
Posted : Monday Dec 5, 2011 8:29:20 EST
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — The iBOT Mobility System hit the market with great fanfare in 2003, when it was hailed as a game changer for people with severe mobility problems.
Unlike other power wheelchairs, the iBOT was capable of raising up on two wheels, gyroscopically self-balanced, which caused many to liken it to a Segway.
That was no coincidence. The inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen, is also the inventor of the iBOT.
Together with medical giant Johnson & Johnson’s Independence Technologies, Kamen launched the iBOT with great expectations that unfortunately collided with bureaucratic and market realities, causing manufacture of the chair to shut down in 2009. The manufacturer is committed to provide maintenance support until 2013, when, as the chairs inevitably malfunction at some point, they will be gone.
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