MIT To Test 3D Printing And Mobile Delivery Of Prostheses In Sierra Leone
MIT to test 3D printing and mobile delivery of prostheses in Sierra Leone
A mobile imaging and delivery system for prosthetic limb services for disabled Sierra Leoneans is being developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who have established a new bionics center at the university.
Listed as one of four priorities for the research center established with $24 million in funding from philanthropist Lisa Yang, the project is intended to ensure that patients in medically underserved communities have access to prostheses.
Investigators will field-test a system that will use a mobile clinic to 3D-print and deliver customized prosthetics to people who are disabled, according to a statement issued by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A pilot program for the service will be launched in rural Sierra Leone, a West African country where thousands of people lost their limbs during an 11-year civil war. Approximately 27,000 Sierra Leoneans were disabled or had one or more of their limbs amputated during the war that lasted from 1991 to 2002, according to estimates.
According to MIT, while the number of people who have lost limbs continues to rise year after year in Sierra Leone, only less than 10 percent of that population currently has access to functional prostheses.
An important goal of the mobile delivery system is to increase the production and availability of functional limb prostheses for Sierra Leoneans who are in desperate need, according to the statement.
"It is an innovative solution to a global problem," says Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio of the mobile prosthetics service powered by the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics.
The MIT project is in line with President Bio's ambitions to establish Sierra Leone as a regional center for technology and innovation.
The establishment of a Directorate of Science, Technology, and Innovation (DSTI) led by David Moinina Sengeh, the country's first-ever chief innovation officer who also serves as Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, was one of the first things he did after taking office in 2017.
Sengeh is an MIT and Harvard inventor whose research to improve prosthetic limbs in Sierra Leone will be supported by the MIT Bionics Center. Sengeh has received awards from both MIT and Harvard.
He has played a pivotal role in the government's digitisation drive, having introduced President Bio to TED Talks and tech activities at the universities of Oxford, Yale, and Harvard, among others.
President Obama has participated in dialogues centered on using innovation and technology to transform food systems in Africa over the past four years; given presentations on blockchain and the Fourth Industrial Revolution; and visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he detailed plans to transform his country into a digital hub.
I am proud that Sierra Leone will be the first country to implement this cutting-edge digital design and fabrication process," Bio expressed his delight at the news.
"As the leader of a government that encourages the use of innovative technologies and places a high value on human capital development, I am overjoyed that this pilot project will provide Sierra Leoneans (particularly those living in rural areas) with access to high-quality limb prostheses, thereby improving their quality of life."
More information on the Bionics Center
Hugh Herr, an MIT professor who also happens to be a double amputee, will be in charge of the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics. In general, it seeks to develop technologies and surgical methods to mitigate disability caused by injury, aging, or disease by combining the findings of several different disciplines.
MIT experts from three schools – Science, Engineering, and Architecture and Planning – as well as clinical and surgical collaborators from Harvard Medical School are expected to collaborate at the new centre, which will open in 2019.
Aside from that, the center will provide four endowed fellowships to MIT graduate students who are working in bionics or other research areas that are aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities.
According to Yang, a former investment banker who has been a major supporter of autism research at MIT and Cornell University, among other institutions, "I am thrilled to be partnering with MIT on this major research effort to enable powerful new solutions that improve the quality of life for individuals who experience disability."
"With this new commitment, I am expanding my philanthropic investment into the field of physical disabilities, and I am looking forward to the center's positive impact on countless lives," says the donor.
