This year we were lucky to have Luca join as as a current Occupational Therapy student from Monash University to be a part of his university project titled “Establishing the reliability and validity for lateral pinch grip using GripAble, a handheld sensor-based dynamometry device.”

Following an injury or onset of disease of the hand or upper limb, measurement of maximum pinch strength is commonly used to establish a patient’s baseline function, guide intervention planning, and determine treatment outcomes. A device called the B&L Pinch gauge has long been recognised as the “gold standard” pinch strength measurement instrument (i.e., a tool used in clinical practice for many years). However, it has several reported limitations when measuring pinch strength.

This research project aims to determine if a new, handheld, sensor-based rehabilitation device, called the GripAble, can measure the lateral pinch strength of healthy adults consistently and produce similar results to the B&L pinch gauge. This project also aims to examine the user’s experience when using the two devices. This will indicate whether the GripAble is an appropriate tool to be used by therapists who provide hand and upper limb rehabilitation.

Data will be collected for this project in the first half of 2023, and results will be submitted as an Honours thesis by the end of 2023.

This project is being completed by Luca Almiento and associated with Monash University Supervisor Luke Robinson.