Angela Howard, UNA Alumna, at her OptimComfort manufacturing facility.
FLORENCE – University of North Alabama College of Nursing alumna Angela Howard actually began her journey at a different institution, Itawamba Community College. In 2003 Howard graduated with an Associate Degree of Applied Science in Nursing, while working as a nursing assistant and raising 2-year-old identical twins. She is also a first-generation college student.
Howard enrolled in UNA’s Bachelor of Nursing program in 2006, with the desire to further her nursing education.
“I did complete the degree entirely online,” said Howard. “I had divorced in January 2004, so while I was completing the program at UNA I was a single mother with no support from my family. I also held a full-time weekend position as RN Supervisor at a residential psychiatric treatment facility for adolescents and two part-time jobs during the week,” she said.
Howard managed to find success in the program despite her hectic schedule and was able to apply for a job that required a BSN. Her job was to assist in creating life care plans for individuals with chronic illnesses and traumatic personal injuries. “I worked with a wide variety of patients, including burn victims, amputees, traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries,” said Howard.
With that experience under her belt, Howard went on to complete the certification process in 2009, passing the international boards as a Certified Life Care Planner (CLCP).
“Being a single mother, I continued to work three jobs,” she said. “I began working as a life care planner and continued my case management jobs with hospice and the
Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation. I also did short-term travel assignments, working as a case manager on the heart and lung transplant floor at Temple University in Philadelphia and as a psychiatric nurse in Modesto, California,” said Howard.
It was during this time that Howard said she initially began thinking of the medical chair that would change her life. Howard had grown up with a great aunt who was born with severe cerebral palsy and at a young age Howard learned how to lift her out of an upright chair that she described as “very rigid and very institutional looking.”
Howard said she had always felt sorry for her great aunt, as the chair looked very uncomfortable.
“In my work as a nurse, I continued to lift my patients just as I had learned to lift my great aunt,” she said. “Most of my patients suffered from severe musculoskeletal impairments, so the full weight of their bodies would often rest in my arms. I would also often walk into a patient’s home or hospital room to find them sitting in a slumped position.”
Howard said she would often find herself educating patients’ family members on the risks of placing pillows around their loved ones to keep them propped up since this can often increase the risk for pressure sores. It was during that time that she said she had an epiphany of sorts; what if there was a chair that could be designed to support the trunk/core of the body? Howard said she thought this type of chair might “alleviate some of these problems and help patients maintain a more proper body alignment”
But when Howard searched to find a chair to fit these needs, she said there wasn’t one to be found.
Howard’s best friend’s mother became one of her hospice patients. The woman was a stroke /dementia patient and had declined to the point where she no longer had the ability to sit in a straightly aligned position in her chair.
“One day I entered her room as her nurse and found my friend standing at her mother’s side in tears,” said Howard. “Her mother sat extremely slumped over and had aspirated shortly after lunch due to improper positioning. Knowing my friend as I did, I knew that she would do whatever was necessary to provide the best for mom.”
Howard said she decided then, with the help of her friend, to take the next step and design a chair that they could then have specially built. Howard said she purchased poster board and sketched her chair, the chair that would eventually become the OptimComfort Medical Chair.
Howard and her friend then filed for a patent. Within six months they had two separate pending patents, and in late 2014 they were granted two official patents for the OptimComfort chair.
“One patent was granted for the custom design of the back of the chair and the other for positioning aids that allow individuals with the most extreme disabilities the comfort of sitting in a standard piece of furniture versus being confined to a wheelchair, “she said.
The specially designed chair back is what makes it work, according to Howard. “It’s a concave shape and has customized lumbar support, which,” she said “allows individuals to be able to sit in a more upright position, helping to alleviate pressure on the entire spine.”
The chair also has a pillow that is weighted in a special way, making it easily adjustable for the individual user.
“The OptimComfort chair is also the only chair on the market that is not composed of blown fiber,” she said. “Our chair is constructed with a solid wood frame and dense poly foam that is cut on a contouring machine so that it does not lose its shape. The poly is covered with the highest quality memory foam so that it conforms to the body of each individual user,” said Howard.
The original chair was designed with two motors to allow for infinite positioning, including sitting, reclining, flat lying, Trendelenburg and a lift position. However, the simple comfort and contemporary style of the chair brought demand for a non-powered recliner for individuals who just wanted comfort. This led to the design of a typical furniture model manufactured with Howard’s patented back
But Howard’s work with the chair didn’t stop with her design; she decided to manufacture the chair as well. “My business partner and I agreed to lease an unoccupied manufacturing facility that was already set up and took only a small amount of work to move into.”
Howard said they began dealing directly with suppliers and found their own employees and now Howard and her business partner own the manufacturing facility. Their official production start date was Feb. 9, 2015, and she said they’ve already surpassed their conservative business plan and look forward to more growth in the coming years.
“I, in large, credit the University of North Alabama for the sense of empowerment that took me to the levels of my career that led to the development of OptimComfort,” said Howard. “The flexibility of being able to complete the RN to BSN program entirely online was the only way I could have achieved this degree I had no choice but to work multiple jobs, while solely raising my children. The superior quality of the administration and nursing faculty at UNA forced me to be my best.”
For more information on the UNA College of Nursing: https://www.una.edu/nursing/
For more information on the OptimComfort Medical Chair: http://www.optimcomfort.com/
Media Release/University of North Alabama/Bryan Rachal,University Communications
Photographer: Shannon Wells
