Orthocare Innovations, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has been slated to receive approximately $1.4 million in federal research grants toward the following three ongoing projects:
Advanced Prosthetic Socket
The National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD), has selected Orthocare to be awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant of approximately $771,000 to develop an advanced prosthetic socket system.
According to Orthocare, the proposed socket system builds on two of the company’s technologies: the Edison™, a noiseless, self-adjusting vacuum suspension technology; and a computer-controlled system that automatically expands and shrinks to maintain socket fit to accommodate short-term changes in residual-limb volume that amputees experience throughout the day. The Edison will enter the market in January 2011, Orthocare noted.
ABLE Kids
NIH has awarded Orthocare $183,234 for the Advanced Biofidelic Lower Extremity Kids Prosthesis (ABLE Kids) project. The grant is provided under award number 1R43HD066861-01, supported in part by NICHHD.
In Phase I of the ABLE Kids project, Orthocare said that its researchers will use computerized miniature hydraulic systems and advanced control algorithms to create artificial-limb components that are small enough for children to wear and that can be adjusted to compensate for changes in growing children’s movement patterns. These systems, whose hydraulic lines are slightly larger than a pencil lead, include technology pioneered at Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL).
Haptic Feedback for Prosthetics that Feel
The Department of Education has awarded Orthocare a $499,853 SBIR Phase II research grant for the Haptic Feedback Improvements for Prostheses project to develop and put into clinical practice a feedback system that will give amputees a sense of touch through their prosthetic limb.
The system, supported by grant number H133S100094, will use sensors on the artificial limb to collect data about how much force the limb is putting out, Orthocare explained. A computerized controller that is built into the limb will then analyze the data and translate it into a pattern of vibrations that tiny machines called actuators will buzz against the wearer’s skin. The vibrations, known as haptic feedback, will tell the wearer how much pressure he or she is exerting through the limb-the more intense the pressure, the more intense the vibrations.
“Our technical team continues to enjoy tremendous success through the competitive grants process at the NIH and now at the Department of Education as well,” said Doug McCormack, CEO of Orthocare Innovations. “Securing these awards is an important achievement, but the measure of success is the translation of this research into products that will have a positive effect on patient care.”
