Innovative “Easy Fork” Created From Inventor’s Quest for Painless Eating for People with Arthritis & Other Health Challenges

Mineola, New York, September 15th, 2013 - For the more than 50 million Americans living with arthritis -- and those with Cerebral Palsy or post-stroke complications-- holding a fork at meals can be a source of pain, frustration, and often isolation and depression. It doesn’t have to be.

Vadim Gordin, a 29 year old expert in disability design, patent attorney and founder of product start-up Rise Assistive Devices LLC has created a unique fork called Easy Fork that redefines the mechanics of eating to make it nearly effortless and painless to use.

Existing adaptive utensils -- many of which haven’t changed in design for 30 years or more require a clenched fist to hold and control them and can shift around in the heel of the hand. Conversely the EasyFork is shaped to fit snugly in the heel of the user’s hand and onto the bridge between thumb and forefinger. Because of this, it only takes only a tiny amount of force from a user’s thumb or a single finger to confidently grasp the handle. If needed, the EasyFork can also be used comfortably with virtually NO movement of the fingers or wrists.

Additionally adaptive forks (many of which are little more than traditional forks pushed inside of a bicycle grip)  require around 50 degrees of motion to scoop food and 90+ degrees of motion to skewer food.  Offering a better way, the EasyFork is positioned so that a user never has to rotate their forearm or wrist more than 20 degrees from a neutral position. By keeping the hand within 20 degrees of neutral position, the entire eating process “happens” where users have the most strength and control and requires less then half the overall twisting, power and hand movement of traditional forks.

Watching his grandmother struggle with eating and finding existing options lacking served as inspiration for Gordin’s Easy Fork. His biomechanical engineering & disability design expertise then helped him bring the idea to the life and the response to prototypes has been overwhelmingly positive.

 “ When I tried to buy an arthritis friendly, adaptive utensil for my grandmother I found no solutions I was happy with. I walked away thinking that people deserve a better option, so my goal with the EasyFork and other Rise Assistive Devices I’m working on is to create thoughtfully designed tools that minimize the impact of physical impairments on a person’s quality of life,” said Vadim.

“The look on people’s faces when they hold the EasyFork for the first time is electrifying! Many people have just come to expect that holding a fork is a painful struggle.  It’s incredible to show them that this doesn’t have to be true.. After seeing the positive impact EasyFork made on people, I knew that I had to produce it.” Says Gordin.

To raise the capital to begin production for the EasyFork device, Gordin -- who’s start up company is based in the Launchpad Long Island startup incubator -- is looking to crowdfunding through IndieGoGo

. The EasyFork will cost $22 and be available for pre-order crowdfunding starting on September 15th at http://www.easyfork.net/.  His goal is to secure $9,500  of pre-orders by October 28th.

Note: There is a Patent Pending on the EasyFork

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About Rise Assistive Devices LLC

Vadim Gordin is a patent attorney and biomedical engineer. He has designed a family of several assistive devices. The overall goal of these is to minimize the impact that physical impairments have on a person’s quality of life. The first of these is the EasyFork, which is Patent Pending.

Vadim is an expert in biomechanics and design for disabilities. He will be speaking at this year’s Enabled by Designathon conference in Washington DC hosted by United Cerebral Palsy’s Life Labs and the UK’s Enabled by Design.

For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Vadim Gordin

Rise Assistive Devices LLC

Phone: 201.984.3348

vadim@EasyFork.net

http://www.linkedin.com/in/vadimgordin