Is a Tek RMD value for money?

In working with various medical products and fielding enquiries about them we tend to emphasise at first whether they are going to be safe and effective for a particular individual to use. When we get an enquiry this is where our attention needs to be initially but clients must often look beyond these issues to find benefit - especially with “assistive technology”.

Of course, for a product like the Tek RMD we have had many enquiries from people who unfortunately discover they cannot use it because of physical limitations. The product was designed for persons who have a paraplegia - a spinal cord injury that results in lower limb paralysis but upper limbs with pretty much full function. There aren’t any perfect medical products and all have some indications and contraindications for use. Once we get past this “hurdle” of “Is it safe and effective?” potential clients need to look for some benefit that makes it worth investing. So how do clients find value from the Tek RMD?

One of the clear and obvious benefits of a Tek RMD is that it allows clients to stand with good posture and move around indoors. That certainly is something that clinicians tend to applaud and it is likely to be something appreciated in an initial product demonstration.

The very first client we had for the Tek RMD discovered the joy of being able to do some simple things independently for the first time. We are all different and expectations can be different too. No product can meet every expectation that client’s come up with - “No - the Tek RMD wont let you go up a staircase”, “No - the Tek RMD wont take you across that field”

Let’s focus on what we can do with a Tek RMD.

After all, if you have been encouraged to stand for health, the chance to move around at the same time probably seems like a big deal compared with a static standing frame. But moving about is not going to be much use unless you can actually do something once you are standing.

I don’t want to diminish how nice it is to just stand - and maybe that is enough benefit for some people. When you really think about it, you are going to see the world from a very different (at least higher) perspective when you stand compared with being in a wheelchair. Your eye line is going to be 60 cm or so higher when standing compared with being in a wheelchair. This allows clients to relate eye ball to eye ball with family and friends.

The real benefit of the Tek RMD becomes more obvious in an environment like a kitchen.

We probably all know wheelchair users who must face the fact that they cant reach items in the kitchen cabinets or even make a cup of tea for themselves. No one likes to be dependent for things like this.

You might find that some kitchen tasks can be performed safely when using a Tek RMD. Of course, given the funding you can renovate your kitchen to allow for life in a wheelchair.

You may have to rip out the kitchen, widen the entrance doors, so your wheelchair can go through, lower the kitchen cabinets and counters. It’s not hard to run up a bill of £30,000 to remodel the kitchen - and then we still have to turn to the bathroom and changes to the rest of the house!!

With the Tek RMD you might just be able to use the existing kitchen layout. Certainly the first thing you discover is that the Tek RMD is narrower than a wheelchair and very manoeuvrable - it fits through those doors without a problem.

For sure you will be able to do a lot more independently and might be able to save some money overall.

If you spend £18,000 or so on getting a Tek RMD it’s likely to be quite a lot less than you would spend remodelling the kitchen.

Are you going to be able to do everything you did before in the kitchen? Well possibly not, but with some creative thinking and adaptation you can certainly make some positive steps forward.

When looking at equipment like the Tek RMD sometimes people focus too much on what the product can do or cant do. A different kind of mindset is needed in our view. When you focus too much on any specific product it is too easy to feel frustrated because it looks like all your needs cant be met. We find that clients sometimes have gathered lots of individual pieces of equipment that do not work together coherently. In an ideal world everyone would have access to a case manager or OT with the knowledge and foresight to see “the bigger picture. It’s important to think broadly about your needs and how individual pieces of equipment can work together to meet those needs.

Clients can find that the Tek RMD represents fantastic value for money but they need to think of the whole of their indoor environment and seek ways that equipment can work together in a coherent and practical way.

You can find more information about the Tek RMD here or Request A Demo.