What Foot Should We Use?

Involved: Barber Prosthetics, with a team from BCIT, Orthocare Innovations, University of Southern Florida, UBC & Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitation

Fun Fact: This is the research project that started it all!

Providing appropriate prosthetic feet to those with limb loss is a complex and subjective process influenced by professional judgment and payer guidelines. We were part of a group that sought to see if we could measure a biomechanical characteristic of feet that patient’s preferred or increased activity level.  This was the first randomized double-blind study in which prosthetic users have expressed a preference for a specific biomechanical characteristic of prosthetic feet: those with lower peak sagittal moments were preferred, and specifically preferred on slopes, stairs, uneven terrain, and during turns and maneuvering during real world use. Read the full article.

While this might sound quite technical, this was also the first research project we were involved it and it spurred our interest to get involved in all of the other projects you see described here.