People powered prosthetics: prosthetic innovation driven by user needs

Abstract

This Visual Vignette is an accessible infographic, developed in collaboration with prosthetic users, physical rehabilitation clinicians and researchers. It presents user-defined priorities for research and development to create lower limb prostheses and associated products that meet the lifestyle needs of users.

People with limb absence rely upon prosthetic devices to meet their everyday needs. Poorly designed services and devices have huge negative consequences on their lives, so designers have a responsibility to understand user requirements and develop products that meet them. Healthcare product development emphasises functionality and safety over user needs1, and a survey of 855 prosthetic users highlighted the lack of patient involvement and personalisation in prosthetics, demonstrating the need for innovation2.
We undertook a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) activity which aimed to identify and prioritise research and development that is required to create lower limb prostheses that meet the lifestyle needs of users. We undertook PPI workshops which embraced the principles of user-centred and co-design, seeking to involve a range of public at the earliest stage in undertaking research i.e. in the exploration of new research and/or research prioritisation3. Two workshops involved health care professionals, academics and designers working in rehabilitation following lower limb amputation, and two involved adult service users and their families and carers. Workshops aimed to understand:

•needs and concerns of patients receiving new devices or living with existing devices that do not fully meet their needs.
•challenges associated with designing, manufacturing prostheses, the materials used and on-going maintenance.
•how researchers, clinicians, hardware and software developers can work together to develop cost effective technologies in challenging clinical environments.

Over 25 people attended the workshops. Seven key areas of importance were identified, in which prosthetic limb users felt further focus was needed to ensure prosthetic componentry met their needs:
•socket comfort as a priority
•personalisation
•real world rehabilitation
•communication between service providers
•device sustainability
•sharing experience to increase knowledge
•recognising psychological wellbeing

It is important to recognise that this list does not represent research findings in itself. Using a PPI approach has allowed the team to work with prosthetic users at an early stage in the research process, enabling us now to undertake future work which has been identified as important ‘by’ prosthetic users. This opportunity has also fostered new relationships with prosthetic users so that future work can be carried out ‘with’ them as partners.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Chantel Marie Ostler: orcid.org/0000-0002-8267-2892

ORCID for Cheryl Metcalf: orcid.org/0000-0002-7404-6066

ORCID for Alex Dickinson: orcid.org/0000-0002-9647-1944

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