Fit-for-purpose, affordable body-powered prostheses
Fit-for-purpose, affordable body-powered prostheses is designing upper limb prostheses that are both low cost and fit for their purpose and circumstance.
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Prostheses can be used to replace the missing limb, offering both cosmetic and functional benefits. In lower and middle income countries (LMICs), conflict and road traffic accidents mean that demand for upper limb prostheses is high; however, provision is sparse, and maintenance is a major challenge.
Prostheses offer a potentially viable solution. This project brings together an experienced team from across the UK, Uganda and Jordan to understand the needs of prosthetic users in their context and to create a new BP prosthesis that is optimised for adoption by LMIC prosthetic services and acceptable to LMIC users. The project has five working packages (WP) or sub-themes of research. UCL and GDI Hub are leading WP 5: digital tools for evaluation and training.
Outputs
We have visited Uganda and Jordan to perform scoping studies utilising public and patient involvement and visited relevant stakeholders (hospitals, clinics, prosthetists, research centres, local NGOs, industry representatives). The results of our scoping studies have been published in the Trent International Prosthetics Symposium (TIPS) 2019 and at the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine magazine SCOPE in December 2018. We have also published an overview of the findings of this project here.
The scoping studies have shed light on the multidimensional challenges and needs of prosthetic users. There is no data regarding real-life use of prosthetics. Prosthetics users do not have a network or a community, thus they are not able to help each other, and the possibility of improving public policy is minimal because they are not organised to campaign for better prosthetics services and access to prostheses.
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