OrthoCare Partners with ORNL and JHUAPL on Development and Technology Transfers

OrthoCare Innovations, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Oak Ridge (ORNL), Tennessee, and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), Laurel, Maryland, on the development and transfer of a number of technologies to the commercial sector. Several of those technologies support the shoulder-disarticulation-level prosthesis that is under development by researchers at JHUAPL in coordination with several other research institutions as part of the Defense Army Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-sponsored Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 (RP2009) program.

"Unless the technology can be transferred to a company to make them commercial products, they will remain only exciting ideas in the lab," said U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who participated with OrthoCare on a press conference to announce the partnership.

"OrthoCare is uniquely positioned to transfer technologies out of the academic and government laboratories that are working on these technologies to real, practical clinical use&because our team is very evenly spread between clinical prosthetics, engineering, and basic science," said David Boone, CP, MPH, PhD, chief technology officer at OrthoCare.

The technology transfers have to do with "some nanotechnology improvements to the interface of that prosthesis to the body, and those are really applicable for all prostheses, not just the DARPA arm," Boone said. Specifically, two of the technologies involve creating an "active prosthesis" through the improvement of prosthetic liners and suspension systems. "Right now, most of the suspension and most prosthetic liners are fairly static, the difference being that an active prosthesis will change how it is supported or how it moves relative to the needs of the user and the environmental requirements," Boone said. "In other words, the liner would be cooler [against a person's skin] in hot weather and be cleaner in hot weather if, for example, the person might be sweating." Likewise, the suspension system will deliver near human-like performance regardless of who is wearing it.

"The DARPA [RP2009] arm has the capability of lifting several times the amount of force that conventional upper-extremity prosthetic components are able to perform, and that translates into an incredible amount of force on the body and on the interfaces," said Jay Martin, CP, director of the Advanced Systems Group at OrthoCare. "We're developing the next generation of interfaces for upper extremity that enables the entire load force to be distributed comfortably and effectively on the body."

While OrthoCare did not provide a timeline for the transfer of these technologies, Boone stressed that the partnership is not about commercializing the DARPA arm. Stuart Harshbarger, JHUAPL program manager & RP2009 team leader, said, "Though the complete RP2009 limb system is expected to be ready for clinical evaluation and commercial transition over the next couple of years, the details of that transition process have not yet been fully determined." Boone added, "What we are doing is taking specific technologies that are ready today and doing the tech transfer of those. I think our role is really the bridge to help make the connection between the scientists and the end users. The fact that we can have an impact on the lives of the entire population of persons with limb loss is really exciting."

OrthoCare Partners with ORNL and JHUAPL on Development and Technology Transfers

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