Upper Limb Prosthetic Design Handbook For Makers & Hobbyists
My name is Jason Bender and I am a Certified Prosthetist from the United States now living and working in Myanmar. I am seeking to between $1,500-1,900 (now $2,400-$3000 see comments) to complete a design handbook/reference targeted hobbyists and makers to hopefully catalyze them in developing new devices and pathways for the limb-loss community. Formal proposal to follow after discussion.
The Global Need
According to the World Health Organization, 9 out of 10 people globally do not have access to the assistive devices they need. With an estimated 4-12 million people living with upper extremity limb-loss and 300,000 new upper-limb amputations occuring every year, it is imperative that we find new innovative pathways of delivering quality and effective prosthetic devices and services to the underserved limb-loss community around the world.
A New Source For Ideas
An emerging source for innovative approaches to prosthetic care is the global hobbyist, maker, or “hacker” community. Disruptions emerging from this cohort include both methods of delivery as well as functional devices--some of which have even been approved and accepted by traditional healthcare systems.
Equipping New Designers
Therefore, the purpose of this handbook is to equip people from more diverse backgrounds to join the work of imagining and creating new prosthetic devices and services. Using theory and principles from over 200 years of prosthetic history, this handbook seeks to provide resources and tools that will help hobbyists, makers, and “lay” designers to not only avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, but be better equipped to provide meaningful contributions to the global limb-loss community.
Beginning with a proper framework for prosthetic care provision and historical background, the handbook will cover various aspects of device design, including: upper limb anatomy and function, useful biomechanics, mechanical hand design, device control methods, and design-for-manufacturing with a focus on 3D-printing.
A brief sample is attached.
Let me know your thoughts. As I mentioned in the Facebook group, while I'd love to do this for free, our existence in Myanmar is dependent on keeping our fledgling small business going. Full support from e-Nable will also allow to keep the work 100% free and available to the entire maker community. Can discuss multiple funding strategies.
Have a look at the sample, especially the intro and TOC and let me know what you think. Good to hash it out a bit before the formal proposal.
Bob Rieger Wed 20 Mar 2019 1:44PM
I agree with the interactive web-based format......I suspect you used the word "handbook" in a conceptual sense.........
Jason Bender Wed 20 Mar 2019 2:35PM
If I can summarize the discussion up until now, and add my thoughts:
1) Overall support is quite positive -- Great!
2) Web-based over paper-based -- Question is whether to be Wikifactory-based in the beginning or not (i.e start on a self-hosted or other platform). Don't feel strongly either way, my only concern would be if and when the time comes to export from WF, will it be compatible with self-hosted site or are we creating more work in long run by starting on WF?
3) Funding ask is too modest -- You caught me, didn't want to scare everyone away on my first proposal, but I appreciate your honesty here. Open to input from SPC on what they think this project may be worth to the community. Ideally, I need to make at least $800-$1000/month of "business-related activities" to maintain our visa, the rest is subsidized through an NGO. So for me, a robust funding situation would be:
Initial grant of est. months of initial work * $800-$1000/month (e.g 3 months work ~$2,400-$3,000) (doesn't mean it will be done in 3 months, I have other responsibilities too, but the estimated total burden of the work).
Then a much, much smaller ongoing maintenance fee (~$80 month??)
In such a scenario I could feel really comfortable at being the "lead curator" of this project. But happy to hear your thoughts as well.
Jon Schull Wed 20 Mar 2019 2:43PM
re #2, I suggest you reach out to Christina Rebel at Wikifactory and see what she thinks. She'll love the project and may, for example, prioritize some features on the roadmap (like incorporation of google docs or authoring in Markdown) in order to keep you in the tent. Under the hood, Markdown is what they use, and is the right format, I suspect.
#3. You caught ME! $800-1000 / month is a big jump up from your initial offer. Given our current bank balances, I don't think we could support that and wouldn't support it.
Jason Bender Wed 20 Mar 2019 2:51PM
re #2. Good idea. I'll reach out to her and see what she thinks.
re #3. Woops! Maybe my comment wasn't clear. $800-1000/month would just be for the "estimated months of work" to get the first edition up and running. So let's say its 3 months or ~450hrs of work to do first edition. That's $2,400-$3,000 one time. Then for ongoing editing/curation the fee could be much, much less, say 0.5 days/week so...like $80/month. I'll update my comment.
Jon Schull Wed 20 Mar 2019 3:00PM
That might fly (with me) depending on the goals you set for the first month and the notion that each month is renewable or not by the community. Or something. I say "with me" because I don't mean to give the impression that you are negotiating with me. (You're discussing with the community and I'm meddling more than I'd like.) I'm just trying to help coach this to success. We need other input (Signing off now.)
Jacquin Buchanan Wed 20 Mar 2019 9:21PM
I would definitely use a resource like this. Though I have to say as the conversation builds I can see a lot of value beyond just "developing new devices". There are probably a dozen, certainly less than 100, designers in the e-nable community. In a pinch you could get them all in a room for a workshop. There are many thousands of fabricators and fitters of these devices. I think a reference from someone like yourself that informs and helps that larger group could have a greater impact on this community. Maybe I am speaking of two different things. If so then I hope you can "help" with both.
Jason Bender Thu 21 Mar 2019 6:50AM
I agree a sort of fab & fitting best practices manual would be very beneficial to the community but it is not something I as a certified professional could be part of.
Being seen to encourage non-professionals to involve themselves in direct care w/o any enforcement mechanism is not something my profession would smile on (nor am I fully supportive of).
Jacquin Buchanan Fri 22 Mar 2019 8:57PM
OK, I see your point. Curious if I could find a traditional prosthetics manufacturer to write this other manual.
Jon Schull Fri 22 Mar 2019 9:11PM
@changliu1 a prosthetics student has been writing materials to advise non-professionals like us on best practices. As her professors insist we make clear, this is non-professional advice, and professional involvement is a good thing. But she's VERY VERY GOOD, and she's working on fitting techniques intended to require less expertise than prosthetists assume and require.
I believe she will soon provide some links and a roadmap to her work.... ;-)
Jon Schull · Wed 20 Mar 2019 1:51PM
Agree 100% re 21st century media and process. Wikifactory's editor is easy and wysigyg. WF would work well for early creation and collaboration, and the team could then figure out how to develop and disseminate further. By the way, this French Prosthetics text from 20s should be a good resource.
This could be an important project. I'm hoping it can help "both sides" appreciate the complementariy between time-honored but innovation-retarding principles of standard practice vs user-oriented fresh-canvas "substantially better than nothing" design practices.
I also agree that your "ask" is unnecessarily modest. If you do it installments, and it is open-source from the start, and you are willing to act as manager/editor/curator, you will need more to be able to launch and sustain the effort.