A Waterloo Engineering research team is helping cancer survivors manage lymphedema with a smartphone-sized, portable compression sleeve that lets patients move freely during therapy.
Dr. Carolyn Ren, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Technologies, leads the Waterloo Microfluidics Laboratory (WML). Her team has engineered a soft-robotic compression sleeve to replace bulky, expensive clinical devices that hinder movement.
The compression sleeve integrates a pump, valves and a microfluidic chip into a compact unit paired with lightweight inflatable balloons and a battery that lasts up to eight hours on a single charge. The goal is to deliver full therapeutic treatment at roughly half the cost of current devices, which can run as high as $3,000.
Lymphedema — painful swelling caused when lymph nodes are removed or damaged during cancer treatment — affects a growing number of survivors as breast and brain cancer survival rates rise. Existing compression therapy devices share a common design flaw: a bulky control box tethered to wall power that forces patients to remain stationary during treatment. Ren's team built their prototype to eliminate that constraint entirely.
The work is deeply collaborative. WML partnered with kinesiologist Dr. Clark Dickerson, Canada Research Chair in Shoulder Mechanics, and Jacqueline Kormylo (BASc '20), a Waterloo master's student whom Ren supported in becoming a certified lymphedema therapist. Kormylo is already demonstrating the sleeve with patients in Ottawa and gathering feedback to refine the design. Former graduate student Dr. Run Ze Gao (BASc '18, PhD '23) is a co-inventor on several patents supporting the device's path toward FDA approval.
"As an engineer, I want to see the technology I develop work within my lifetime," says Ren. "That motivation drives me to start from the problem. If the problem is real — something that affects human well-being, health or quality of life — I always feel there must be a solution."
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