Stair-Climbing Wheelchair Passes a Test

By Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press, 11/21/2002

GAITHERSBURG, Md. - Stairs soon may no longer be insurmountable obstacles for some of the nation's 2 million wheelchair users.

The first wheelchair that can climb stairs - plus shift into four-wheel drive to scoot up a grassy hill and even elevate its occupant for eye-level conversation - moved closer to the market yesterday, as advisers to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended it be allowed to sell.

But the panel backed a few limitations on the Independence iBOT 3000 Mobility System - which uses sensors and gyroscopes to balance on two wheels and navigate stairs - including that it sell only with a doctor's prescription and strict training to ensure users can drive it safely.

The FDA is not bound by its advisers' recommendations but usually follows them - and it granted the iBOT a fast-track review reserved for important new medical technology, meaning a decision could come within a few months.

How does it climb? Most wheelchairs have two big back wheels and two smaller front wheels. The iBOT has four wheels the same size that rotate up and over one another to go up and down steps.

The iBOT 3000 Mobility System,
which can climb stairs and hills.
(AP File Photo)

New Hampshire inventor Dean Kamen, who also created the Segway scooter, created the iBOT, and says wheelchair users tell him another feature is as appealing: The chair lifts onto two wheels so that its occupant, although still sitting, is elevated enough to reach high bookshelves and carry on eye-level conversations with people standing nearby.

"One reason I built it was to let people stand up," said Kamen, who licensed the iBOT to Johnson & Johnson. "We treat a lot of adults like children because they can't stand up."

"I wanted to take it home and keep it," said Karl Barnard of Tilton, N.H., who tested the iBOT in a study required by the FDA, which regulates wheelchair safety.

In the iBOT, he rose to the height of a 6-foot person to do his grocery shopping without help. Barnard, who lost use of his legs 25 years ago, has no stairs in his home, but was impressed with the four-wheel drive that let him roll up hills and through gravel on his farm, places his manual wheelchair can't go.

But with iBOT's predicted price of $29,000, Barnard, 46, calls it "a luxury item" that he probably wouldn't buy until he's too old to push his manual wheelchair.

While several FDA advisers called the chair potentially revolutionary, they also cautioned that it is not for everyone.

Patients must have the use of at least one arm to operate the chair, moving it with a joystick and other controls, and so far it is built only for large teenagers and adults.

Also, it requires some exertion: Users lean forward or backward, directing the chair to climb up or down as it senses and adjusts to the person's center of gravity. They must hold on to a stair rail to help guide it, although there is a feature that allows someone else to hold on to the chair back to assist the more severely disabled.

Picking the right patient is crucial for safe use - someone who not only is physically capable of handling the iBOT, but has the right judgment skills to discern obstacles, such as which hills are too steep to try climbing, without risking serious falls, said Dr. Steve Stiens, a University of Washington rehabilitation specialist who uses a wheelchair himself.

Sales will be strictly controlled, according to manufacturer Independence Technology, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. Doctors and rehabilitation therapists must undergo special training to prescribe the iBOT, and potential users would have to pass a test proving they can drive it safely before taking it home, according to the company.

The iBOT is less expensive than some top-of-the-line wheelchairs for the severely impaired, but far more expensive than basic models. Independence Technology president Jean-Luc Butel, however, said the average cost for ramps, elevators, and other home modifications for someone unable to walk is $40,000, expenditures largely unnecessary with the iBOT. He is negotiating with Medicare and other insurers to pay for the iBOT.

This story ran on page A7 of the Boston Globe on 11/21/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

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