HeadUp neck support collar now available to the NHS and healthcare services worldwide

This week the BBC has been reporting on the HeadUp neck support collar which has recently been made available through the NHS and healthcare services around the world. This revolutionary product was designed as part of a collaborative project between C3RI’s Lab4Living, the University of Sheffield and NIHR Devices for Dignity (D4D) MedTech Co-operative (hosted by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals). The HeadUp neck support collar is now in production and available through healthcare company, Talarmade.

 

The HeadUp neck support collar was designed to ease pain and make everyday tasks such as eating and communicating easier for people living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), although the device can be used to counter neck weakness caused by a range of other conditions. Patients and clinicians played a key role in the co-design process which represents a radical departure from previous neck support collars.

 

 

News of the product was covered on a number of BBC radio channels, including BBC Radio Sheffield [52:20].  Andrew Stanton, Design Researcher in Lab4Living was interviewed for an item on BBC Look North [04:14] which featured an interview with MND patient, Philip Brindle who talked about the impact of the new collar on his quality of life.