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Open Prosthetics is an initiative of the Shared Design Alliance.

The Open Prosthetics Project is producing useful innovations in the field of prosthetics and freely sharing the designs. This project is an open source collaboration between users, designers and funders with the goal of making our creations available for anyone to use and build upon. Our hope is to use this and our complementary sites to create a core group of lead users and to speed up and amplify the impact of their innovations in the industry.

This wiki is one of a number of tools available to the Open Prosthetics community to help educate amputees, prosthetic providers and manufacturers, the general public and anyone else that is interested in the field about the history, culture and technology of amputation and prosthetics. In an effort to provide the best that all of these tools offer, we have chosen to provide access to them all, and users are encouraged to use them all, create links from one to another, and to suggest stubs that should be developed. Other sites include
our social net, The Open Prosthetics Group on Instructables, and The Open Prosthetics Google Group.

There are just over two million amputees or people with limb absence in the United States. Of these, less than five per cent or fewer than 100,000 are missing an upper extremity. This distribution is somewhat different among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, from which, as of 2007, there were fewer than 700 amputees, of whom fewer than 150 are missing arms. This includes six bilateral upper extremity amputees. Obviously, there is some overlap, and these numbers refer to individuals, not to limbs. The dramatic difference in the numbers of upper and lower extremity amputees, along with the challenge of replacing a hand or arm as opposed to a foot or leg, conspire to make the prosthetic options for arms less appealing.

The art and science of attempting to replace a limb with a substitute has likely been around as long as limb loss or absence. The history of prosthetics has been somewhat documented, but we would like to start a group effort here. Broadly, prostheses can be divided into Upper Extremity (arms) and Lower Extremity (legs). Additional related areas include Anaplastology and Orthotics.

Upper and lower extremity prosthetic components are regulated by the FDA as Class I medical devices. Please contribute to this discussion on the issue.

Prosthetic components are distributed to patients as durable medical equipment, reimbursed by insurance companies and the federal government according to "L-codes." Please see this discussion of all of the business and insurance issues surrounding the provision of prosthetic services and devices.

Within these pages, we would like to give an overview of what types of prosthetic devices are available, give as much information as possible about them, including user reviews of pros and cons, including cost, and describe them with pictures where possible. We are also interested in documenting the challenges to getting good prosthetic care, including the variation in insurance coverage, and the small market in upper extremity prosthetics.

We hear a lot about what amputees want and don't want. We're pretty tired of arguing with anecdotes. Come help us figure out the right questions to ask, and let's ask everyone we can.

Seeking to expand the user base for myoelectric control, we're hoping to develop myo signal processors that can be used as parts of toys or other user-customizable devices. This is described in more detail here. You can discuss the project in the forum on our Google Group site.

While related to the Open Myo Project described above (which will comply with these standards when they are developed), there is a great need within the prosthetic industry (particularly upper extremity) for standards of interoperability. These could extend from mechanical connections, like the Otto-Bock quick disconnect wrist, a de facto standard, to electrical bus standards for communication like the CAN-based OBD-II standard used in automobiles. This topic will be a subject of discussion at a breakout session at the MEC 2008 Conference in August, and we have created a project page to serve as a source of information and a place to begin and continue a dialog about the development of these standards.

OPP is seeking to update and return to production the much-loved Trautman Hook. See the project page for more details.

The Vector is an experimental mechanism implemented in a couple of different forms that never made it to production because of patent issues. The inventors have shared the design with the project, and we're looking for folks interested in helping move the open design project toward production. The project is described in more detail, and the documents shared by the inventors are available here.

The Army Prosthetic Research Lab (APRL) hook was developed following WWII by the US Army, and has interesting features that distinguish it from other hooks. It is voluntary closing (VC), and has a setting that enables it to lock on the object it closes on. Additionally, it has settings that allow it to open to two different opening distances. While the hook is still produced by Hosmer-Dorrance, some users complain about the durability of the hook and are seeking to update it and increase its durability. Find out more on the project page.

We've been thinking for a while about updating the split hook, versions of which have been around since before WWI. We have a volunteer effort to model an existing hook, and hope to create a design appropriate for plastic injection molding. Check out the project page.

Several problems with the standard figure 8 or 9 body powered harness need fixing. Axillary pressure (in the armpit), slippage and movement, and issues with cleanliness come to mind, among others. An improvement is proposed integrating the harness into a shirt. Check out the project page. Our google group page was vandalized but its still up.

Related to the Open Myo project described above, the Project has been pursuing the design of a LEGO hand that could potentially be controlled with myoelectric signals. Volunteer John Bergmann has been working on designs described in the group page, which reproduces updates and downloads from our original site. Our ultimate goal is to have the kit available through the user-designed kits section at the LEGO Factory site, or even one of the commercial kits. We'd love to have someone helping John figure out how to power the hand.

MTV hasn't threatened to sue us yet, but if they did then we'd get a chance to ask them to be on the show. Any resemblance should be clearly identifiable as parody. And believe it or not, we're not aware of anyone confusing Jon with Xzibit. Check out the explanation of the idea, or go straight to the place where you can post about arms, legs, or whatever you need.

It's been our belief that for many of the reasons that are discussed above, even receiving a patent on an upper extremity device was no guarantee that the device would ever make it to market, or that it would continue to be available. In fact, it was a 1954 German patent (reference needed), that sunk hopes for the Vector Prehensor to be commercialized. We think that there may be some gems in the patent literature, so we'd like to generate a list of upper extremity patents and the commercial devices (if any) that they led to.

We're putting suggestions together here.

Different economic, social and physical environments demand different solutions to prosthetic problems. These range from differing reimbursement constraints in Europe and the US, to a total lack of infrastructure and funding in parts of the developing world. Social pressures on appearance and function may differ, as may training and materials available in a specific area. Open Prosthetics has begun a partnership with Fundacion Amistad, a non-profit, to create a cultural exchange of information about prosthetic technology with the prosthetists and patients of Cuba, beginning with an initial trip in the summer of 2008 the project page to find out more.

This is something we've hoped would happen for a long time. Perhaps you have, too. Please feel free to comment and document.

There is a very early stage open source CAD program called <groan>AcoCADo<\groan> being developed by Adam Kumpf at MIT. It will be interesting to see if this project can gain the momentum necessary to generate the 100 or so lead user developers that it would likely take in order to really get things rolling. We're going to help in any way we can, because this issue is fundamental to the democratization of design.

Open Prosthetics is beginning a prosthetic cultural exchange with the Cuba Rada Institute, sponsored by Fundacion Amistad. We hope to complete the initial visit by the end of June, and expand the program based on what we learn. Follow our efforts here.

We'll look here as well as in the Pimp My Arm section for ideas.

Post whatever information you choose about yourself, how you can be contacted, and what you're interested in working on. The bio information in Google Groups may be another way to make contacts, but a little organization might help, and there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to organize group members by interest [post solution here.]

We'd like to know what you think of this collection of collaboration tools.

Maintained here.