Photograph by Francesca Riccio-Ackerman courtesy of MIT.
The MIT K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health (MOH) launched the first fully accredited educational program for prosthetists and orthotists in Sierra Leone. On November 7, the country’s inaugural class of future O&P clinicians received their white coats at a ceremony in Sierra Leone’s National Rehabilitation Center, marking the start of their specialized training.
Tens of thousands of people in Sierra Leone need orthoses and prostheses, but access to such specialized medical care has been limited in the country. The agreement between the Yang Center and Sierra Leone’s MOH began last year with the signing of a detailed memorandum of understanding to strengthen the capabilities and services of that country’s O&P sector. The bionics center is part of the larger Yang Tan Collective at MIT, whose mission is to improve human well-being by accelerating science and engineering collaborations at a global scale.
The Sierra Leone initiative includes improvements across the supply chain for assistive technologies, clinic infrastructure and tools, technology translation pipelines, and educational opportunities for Sierra Leoneans to expand local O&P capacity. The establishment of the new education and training program advances the collaboration’s shared goal to enable sustainable and independent operation of O&P services for the tens of thousands of citizens who live with physical disabilities due to amputation, poliomyelitis infection, or other causes.
Students in the program will receive their training through the Human Study School of Rehabilitation Sciences, a nongovernmental organization based in Germany whose training models have been used across 53 countries, including 15 countries in Africa.
“This white coat ceremony is an important milestone in our comprehensive strategy to transform care for persons with disabilities,” said Hugh Herr, PhD, professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab and codirector of the Yang Center, who has led the center’s engagement with the MOH. “We are proud to introduce the first program in Sierra Leone to offer this type of clinical education, which will improve availability and access to prosthetic and orthotic health care across the nation.”
The ceremony featured a keynote address by the Honorable Chief Minister of Sierra Leone David Sengeh, PhD, a former graduate student of Herr’s research group and longtime advocate for a more inclusive Sierra Leone.
“The government is very happy that this collaboration with the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at MIT falls within our national development plan and our priorities,” said Sengeh. “Our goal is to invest in human capacity and strengthen systems for inclusion.”
The inaugural class of O&P students includes 11 men and women from across Sierra Leone who have undergone intensive preparatory training and passed a rigorous international standard entrance exam to earn their position in the program. The students are scheduled to complete their training in early 2027 and will have the opportunity to become certified as associate prosthetist/orthotists by the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics.
The program utilizes a hybrid educational model developed by the Human Study School of Rehabilitation Sciences.
“Human Study’s humanitarian education program is unique. We run the world’s only prosthetics and orthotics school that meets international standards at all three levels of the P&O profession,” said Chris Schlief, founder and CEO of Human Study. “We are delighted to be working with the Ministry of Health and MIT’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics to bring our training to Sierra Leone. Prosthetics and orthotics have an essential role to play in increasing mobility, dignity, and equality for people with disabilities. We are proud to be a partner in this groundbreaking program, training the first generation of P&O clinicians. This program will have an impact for generations to come.”
Editor’s note: This story was adapted from materials provided by MIT.
