Stephen Monaco, Ian Robbins, Dhananjay Bhaskar
On behalf of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative (RERC on AAC), a Penn State University research group, and our sponsor Dr. David McNaughton, our team was tasked with designing and building a prototype harness to hold an electrolarynx for hospital patients who had recently undergone a laryngectomy and specifically had issues with fine motor control which made normal operation of the electrolarynx very difficult for them. After developing, refining, and ranking the core needs of the patient, our team developed a prototype electrolarynx holder, a harness that attaches to the holder, and a controller for remote activation of the electrolarynx. Our team believes that should we, or a subsequent group under Dr. McNaughton, have the resources to adapt the prototype to comply with FDA standards so that it could be implemented in a hospital setting, would greatly help patients who have had a recent laryngectomy communicate while recovering from the surgery.