An Inventive Turn on Adversity

Early in her career, Alice (Rice) Brown, BSPharm’71, worked at a pharmacy where, among other things, she was a fitter for the store’s line of orthotics and braces. Twenty-five years later, she would apply that knowledge to create a custom knee brace for herself following a near-fatal auto accident.

The accident occurred the morning of Dec. 4, 1998 while Brown was on her way to work at Wingert Pharmacy in Mayville, Mich., 30 miles from her home in Saginaw. She sustained severe injuries to her foot, ankle, knees, hands, arms, shoulder, face and low back as a result of the head-on collision, and remains partially disabled.

“I had one bad knee from the auto accident, and then I injured my good one while exercising to lose the weight I had gained by being in a wheelchair for over 10 months,” Brown explains.

Her physician advised a total knee replacement on her good knee — an idea Brown rejected outright. Instead, she chose physical therapy.

During one session, her therapist applied the “Mulligan maneuver”: a technique in which the therapist uses both hands to align the thigh and lower leg into normal position.

“I couldn’t believe the difference,” Brown recalls. “That one technique took away my pain and gave me mobility again. Unfortunately, the pain reappeared as soon as the alignment effect wore off.”

Brown arrived at her next physical therapy session walking, and in minimal pain. When her surprised therapist asked what she had done, she explained that she had made a brace that simulated the Mulligan maneuver. She did it by cannibalizing parts from several standard braces; applying her knowledge of anatomy, physiology, materials science, and medical equipment; and then reassembling components using her skills as a seamstress and farrier.

When the physical therapist saw what she had invented, he advised her to patent the idea.

She now has a patent pending, and has launched a business called, “In-the Groove” based upon the operating principle of the brace.

The brace aligns the thigh and the lower leg so the patella, suspended in a long tendon, can fall into the anterior surface groove where the femur and tibia meet. According to Brown, most of the braces currently in the market work either by trapping the patella to keep it in a certain position, or by providing uniform support.

“The problem with those concepts is that if the leg is out of alignment and you provide uniform support, you are supporting the joint in a bad position,” says Brown. “You thus work your muscles, tendons, and ligaments incorrectly, which worsens the pain and the underlying pathology.”

Brown’s In-the-Groove knee brace is currently available on-line and overseas. Her hope is to soon begin manufacturing the knee brace in Michigan.

To help grow her company, Brown has met with a Saginaw-area small business technology development consultancy specializing in start-ups. She’s also extending feelers to venture capital firms.

While acknowledging that the durable medical supply market is rife with knee braces, Brown is convinced that there’s a ready market for her invention.

“The knee brace business in the U.S. is currently about $800 million, annually,” Brown notes. “Our country is spending approximately $11 billion a year on knee replacements, and that number is sure to grow as our population ages. I believe the In-the-Groove knee brace can have an impact on that cost by helping people avoid expensive surgery and extensive post-surgical recovery, and by giving them back a quality of life they have lost.”

For more about Brown’s invention, visit her business Web-site at www.inthegroovebrace.com.

E-mail: abrown@inthegroovebrace.com.