Author: Admin

Our time here is coming to an end now. In the last few days, we are trying to teach our two new associates as much as we can and are back at CoRSU for the official signing of the partnership agreement. This trip opened many doors for us and helped us getting a better understanding of the Ugandan way of doing business and the culture in general. We learned so much and build up a network to provide good support for the future of the project. In total, we made 9 prostheses and even created new possibilities for shorter stumps with the creativity and ingenuity of the local staff. We hope to come back to Uganda very soon to cooperate with more partners in Uganda!

On the 16th of April our group of four split up and two members went to visit the orthopedic workshop at Gulu hospital in the north of Uganda. We aim to enable more partners in Uganda to produce our prostheses independently. The goal is an evenly distributed access to prosthetic care across the whole country. In comparison to Kampala, Gulu is less busy and has way better infrastructure. The hospital is the largest we visited this year and is still too small for the number of patients that seek medical care. The workshop itself has 9 employees and over 300 people on the waiting list for just a new lower limb prosthesis.

We introduced our system and especially the fitting of our prosthesis. Furthermore, the staff in Gulu measured two patients with the help of an instruction manual and send us the data beforehand. We then printed their individualized prosthesis and brought them with us to Gulu. During the next day, the staff fitted the prosthesis to the first patient under our supervision and gave it the final touch with some brown leather coating and padding. They are very interested in future collaboration and are looking forward to seeing us again.

The northern region of Uganda was highly affected by the civil war. The now oldest still working orthopedic technicians in the country founded it back then. They mostly take care of lower limb amputees and rarely upper limb amputees, because the protheses costs are 5 to 10 times higher than a leg prosthesis depending on functionality. After being sceptical at first, they were more than satisfied with the outcome. It convinced them with its lighter weight, faster fitting, and less workload. And for most patients, functionality has not the highest impact. They want to feel “complete” and “normal” again, as one patient put it. So, they get treated like “normal” people with new opportunities. Functional upper limb prostheses look very robotic and need regular charging, which often cannot be provided on the county side. Therefore, the demand for cosmetically pleasing prostheses with long duration is higher in rural settings

Next to the three fittings in the last couple of days, we had two Interviews with potential associates to support us locally in Uganda. We hope to introduce them to you next week when all the agreements are settled and signed.
Meanwhile, Johannes upgraded the software with a feature to install updates if necessary so we can keep our partners always up to date. We also analyzed the feedback the patients gave us after they received their prostheses and evaluated the new input. A brighter variety of colors and forms of the hand to choose from were the most frequently proposed ideas. The feedback from both the patients and the staff we work with is necessary to further improve the system and to meet their individual needs.

In the last three days, we provided three patients with their prostheses. The patient with the short stump came back to try the newly developed method with the inlay socket. It worked out even better than we expected, so we can now also offer a solution for shorter residual limbs Additionally, a twelve-year-old girl and a middle-aged women got their prostheses as well.

Wilko also found time to explain and teach the staff at CoRSU the basics of designing and manipulating their own 3D models on the computer. In the field of 3D printing, Uganda is still at the beginning. However, we do not only try to implement our 3D printing system but also try to help and offer training to the staff, so they understand the general ideas of 3D printing. It is especially of interest for medical engineers to fix broken equipment with self-created structures because it is often hard to import the necessary spare parts.

On Sunday we met with the head of the orthopedic workshop from Gulu. He gave us very interesting insights about the health care system in Uganda and the work environment in his workshop. So, we decided that we will visit Gulu hospital in the following week. The time we planned at CoRSU is nearly over, but after visiting potential new partners we will return for the last 10 days of our stay in Uganda to offer the staff training in the 3D printing software.
The problems we face in Uganda: Many patients cannot afford a prosthesis on their own and especially the once for the upper-limb are rarely fitted individually to the patient. Through 3D printing and supplies, you can buy locally. Our vision is to give amputees access to an affordable and individualized upper-limb prosthesis. The health care system in Uganda is quite a challenge because most of the hospitals are private, funded by non-governmental organizations, and the government is not providing enough money, especially for rehabilitation programs.

Today was a very busy day! We saw 3 patients in total, one of them was a 12-year-old girl who came for her measurements. Then the patient we measured on the 6th of April got his prosthesis and felt very confident wearing it in combination with his sunglasses and leather jacket. When our patients are happy, we are thrilled. The third patient, which was the one with the conical and short residual limb came also for his fitting, but, as we expected, it was not easy at first. The prosthesis tended to slip of the stump on the edges. We tried everything we could think of, and then one of the staff had a great idea: They made a plaster cast and produced an inlay-socket to provide a better fixation for the prothesis to the stump. He will return on the 12th of April, and we will try out the new adjustments for the perfect fit.
On the the weekend, we enjoyed our free time after a very busy week and welcomed our fourth team member Wilko to the group.