Prof David Howard's Outputs (98)

Introducing an adjustable upper limb prosthesis into a Ugandan clinical service: impacts on free living behaviour and prosthetic use (2025)
Journal Article

Access to prosthetic services in Uganda is poor, negatively impacting people with upper limb difference in function, community participation, and employment. Technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of services are needed, but there i... Read More about Introducing an adjustable upper limb prosthesis into a Ugandan clinical service: impacts on free living behaviour and prosthetic use.

Can a novel set of handgrips on a walking frame increase stability and support users when transferring to/from a chair? (2025)
Journal Article

Introduction: One important aspect of walking aid use is transferring safely to the aid from sitting and transferring back to the chair after walking, since these activities have been associated with falls in older adults. Standard frames require the... Read More about Can a novel set of handgrips on a walking frame increase stability and support users when transferring to/from a chair?.

3D Printing in LMICs: functional design for upper limb prosthetics in Uganda (2023)
Journal Article

Meeting the needs of persons with upper limb loss in Uganda requires an understanding of
the needs and desires of the local population. The limitations of resources and accessibility for the
individual gave rise to a focused design methodology fo... Read More about 3D Printing in LMICs: functional design for upper limb prosthetics in Uganda.

Simulated performance of an energy storage and return prosthetic ankle based on cams and miniature hydraulics (2022)
Journal Article
Pace, A., Gardiner, J., Kenney, L., & Howard, D. (2022). Simulated performance of an energy storage and return prosthetic ankle based on cams and miniature hydraulics. IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2022.3146628

Prosthetic feet are limited in their ability to mimic the energy-recycling behaviour of an intact ankle, negatively affecting lower-limb amputees’ gait in terms of metabolic cost and walking speed. To overcome these weaknesses, a novel prosthetic ank... Read More about Simulated performance of an energy storage and return prosthetic ankle based on cams and miniature hydraulics.

Effects of a modified passive socket system on short-term changes in residuum volume and comfort: A preliminary study in transtibial amputees (2021)
Journal Article
Atallah, H., Kenney, L., Howard, D., Liu, A., & Head, J. (2021). Effects of a modified passive socket system on short-term changes in residuum volume and comfort: A preliminary study in transtibial amputees. Prosthetics and Orthotics International, 46(1), 54-60. https://doi.org/10.1097/pxr.0000000000000053

Background: Changes in residuum volume are a common problem in lower-limb amputees during prosthesis usage, and can lead to poor suspension, impaired gait, and tissue damage. Residuum volume can be affected by the in-socket air pressure, which will i... Read More about Effects of a modified passive socket system on short-term changes in residuum volume and comfort: A preliminary study in transtibial amputees.

An investigation of the effects of walking frame height and width on walking stability (2020)
Journal Article

Background
Walking aids are designed for structural support during walking, however, surprisingly self-reported use of a walking aid (“Yes, I use one.”) has been identified as a risk factor for falling. Adjustment and design of walking aids may affe... Read More about An investigation of the effects of walking frame height and width on walking stability.

Data associated with Prince M et al. A pin-array method for capturing tissue deformation under defined pressure distributions and its application to prosthetic socket design (2020)
Data

This is the data associated with: Prince M, Kenney L, Howard D. A pin-array method for capturing tissue deformation under defined pressure distributions and its application to prosthetic socket design. Med Eng Phys. 2020; 84: 136-143.
The Excel file... Read More about Data associated with Prince M et al. A pin-array method for capturing tissue deformation under defined pressure distributions and its application to prosthetic socket design.

A pin-array method for capturing tissue deformation under defined pressure distributions and its application to prosthetic socket design (2020)
Journal Article

The Fit4Purpose project aims to develop upper limb prosthetic devices which are suitable for deployment in lower- and middle-income countries (LMIC's). Open-frame trans-radial socket designs are being considered, formed of several, linked components,... Read More about A pin-array method for capturing tissue deformation under defined pressure distributions and its application to prosthetic socket design.

Evaluating reachable workspace and user control over prehensor aperture for a body-powered prosthesis (2020)
Journal Article

Using a shoulder harness and control cable, a
person can control the opening and closing of a bodypowered prosthesis prehensor. In many setups the cable
does not pass adjacent to the shoulder joint center allowing
shoulder flexion on the prostheti... Read More about Evaluating reachable workspace and user control over prehensor aperture for a body-powered prosthesis.

Are older people putting themselves at risk when using their walking frames? (2020)
Journal Article

Background Walking aids are issued to older adults to prevent falls, however, paradoxically their use has been identified as a risk factor for falling. To prevent falls, walking aids must be used in a stable manner, but it remains unknown to what ext... Read More about Are older people putting themselves at risk when using their walking frames?.

A system for performing functional electrical therapy (2020)
Patent

The patent relates to improvements in or relating functional therapy

A three-site clinical feasibility study of a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support functional task practice for upper limb recovery in people with stroke (2019)
Journal Article

Introduction: Of those people who survive a stroke, only between 40 and 70% regain upper limb dexterity. A number of reviews have suggested that functional electrical stimulation (FES) may have a beneficial effect on upper limb motor recovery. In lig... Read More about A three-site clinical feasibility study of a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support functional task practice for upper limb recovery in people with stroke.

An investigation into the effects of, and interaction between, heel height and shoe upper stiffness on plantar pressure and comfort (2019)
Journal Article

High heeled shoes remain popular, nevertheless it is not clear what influence manipulating characteristics of this footwear has on their functioning. It is accepted that shoe features other than heel height can affect plantar pressures. However, few... Read More about An investigation into the effects of, and interaction between, heel height and shoe upper stiffness on plantar pressure and comfort.

Objective measures of rollator user stability and device loading during different walking scenarios (2019)
Journal Article

Walking aids are widely used by older adults, however, alarmingly, their use has been linked to increased falls-risk, yet clinicians have no objective way of assessing user stability. This work aims to demonstrate the application of a novel methodolo... Read More about Objective measures of rollator user stability and device loading during different walking scenarios.

Logging therapy session data via an upper limb FES rehabilitation system (2018)
Presentation / Conference
Sun, M., Kenney, L., Howard, D., Smith, C., Waring, K., & Luckie, H. (2018, August). Logging therapy session data via an upper limb FES rehabilitation system. Presented at Annual Conference of the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society, Nottwil, Switzerland

This paper reports on an approach to capturing real-time therapy session data using an upper limb functional electrical stimulation (FES) system to support our under-standing of its usability in clinical environments and to record therapy delivered.... Read More about Logging therapy session data via an upper limb FES rehabilitation system.

FES-UPP : a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support upper limb functional activity practice (2018)
Journal Article

There is good evidence supporting highly intensive, repetitive, activity-focused, voluntary-initiated practice as a key to driving recovery of upper limb function following stroke. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) offers a potential mechanism... Read More about FES-UPP : a flexible functional electrical stimulation system to support upper limb functional activity practice.

Performance of optimised prosthetic ankle designs that are based on a hydraulic variable displacement actuator (VDA) (2017)
Journal Article
Gardiner, J., Bari, A., Kenney, L., Twiste, M., Moser, D., Zahedi, S., & Howard, D. (2017). Performance of optimised prosthetic ankle designs that are based on a hydraulic variable displacement actuator (VDA). IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 25(12), 2418-2426. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2017.2763999

Current energy storage and return (ESR) prosthetic
feet only marginally reduce the cost of amputee locomotion
compared to basic solid ankle cushioned heel (SACH) feet,
possibly due to their lack of push-off at the end of stance. To our knowledge,... Read More about Performance of optimised prosthetic ankle designs that are based on a hydraulic variable displacement actuator (VDA).

A generalizable methodology for stability assessment of walking aid users (2017)
Journal Article

To assist balance and mobility, older adults are often prescribed walking aids. Nevertheless, surprisingly their use has been associated with increased falls-risk. To address this finding we first need to characterise a person’s stability while using... Read More about A generalizable methodology for stability assessment of walking aid users.

Closed-loop control of compression paddle motion to reduce blurring in mammograms (2017)
Journal Article

Background: Since the introduction of full field digital mammography (FFDM) a large number of UK breast cancer screening centers have reported blurred images, which can be caused by movement at the compression paddle during image acquisition.
Purpos... Read More about Closed-loop control of compression paddle motion to reduce blurring in mammograms.

Estimating the material properties of heel pad sub-layers using inverse finite element analysis (2016)
Journal Article
Ahanchian, N., Nester, C., Howard, D., Ren, L., & Parker, D. (2016). Estimating the material properties of heel pad sub-layers using inverse finite element analysis. Medical Engineering and Physics, 40, 11-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2016.11.003

Detailed information about the biomechanical behaviour of plantar heel pad tissue contributes to our understanding of load transfer when the foot impacts the ground. The objective of this work was to obtain the hyperelastic and viscoelastic material... Read More about Estimating the material properties of heel pad sub-layers using inverse finite element analysis.