Touch Bionics expands in US to meet demand for prosthetic hand

MTB europe
Technology for Healthcare
27 February 2008


Scottish company Touch Bionics, developer of the world’s first commercially available bionic hand, has set up a US subsidiary, Touch Bionics, Inc. to help meet the growing demand for its revolutionary prosthetic hand.


The i-LIMB prosthetic hand

The company opened new headquarters and a development and manufacturing facility in Livingston, Scotland in January this year.

Touch Bionics launched the i-LIMB Hand in July 2007, and the product has now established itself as one of the hottest devices in the world prosthetics market. The company expects that its clinical customers will have fitted more than 100 patients, from all over the world, by the end of February 2008, representing very strong performance in such a specialist field.

“The level of global enquiries since the launch of the i-LIMB Hand has resulted in a very busy six months for Touch Bionics and we are hitting the top end of our expected sales growth,” said Stuart Mead, Touch Bionics CEO. “The response from patients and clinics alike has further convinced us that the market is ready for our product, meaning that this new facility is vitally important to helping us maintain our rapid growth.”

“We are performing well in export markets — 94% of our business is coming through exported product, and the USA is proving to be our biggest market,” added Mead.

Following its commercial launch, global market perception of the i-LIMB Hand has evolved from exciting new technology to a widely accepted clinical option in the space of six months. Touch Bionics has now established relationships with a wide range of clinical companies – from the world’s largest to smaller, independent clinics.


“Having a stronger US presence enables Touch Bionics to better serve its growing network of partner clinics in America, the company’s biggest market,” said Touch Bionics CEO Stuart Mead. “With more US clinics offering the i-LIMB Hand, growing numbers of American amputees will have the option of being fitted with the most advanced prosthetic hand on the market. The fact that we’re at the top end of our sales projections shows there is a ready market for our product.”


More than 70 patients worldwide have been fitted with the hand and the company anticipates reaching the milestone of 100 fitted patients by the end of February 2008.


Jake Wood, CP, FAAOP, sole certified prosthetist and co-owner at Orthotics and Prosthetics Associates, Inc. in Milwaukee, WI said, “I am so appreciative of what they have made available for my patients. Touch Bionics technology allows me to do my job better, providing patients with a solution that enhances and improves their day-to-day lives. Due to the anthropomorphic, dexterity and functional capabilities of the i-LIMB Hand, it’s in a league of its own, technology-wise.


“This is the first time in my 30 years in the prosthetics business that I felt I was truly delivering an arm to the patient,” continued Wood. “I never thought in my lifetime that I would ever see this technology.”


In addition to the developments in the US, Touch Bionics has also now cemented European partnerships with clinics and distributors in Germany, Turkey, Hungary, Romania and the Benelux region, with more global partners signing up in countries such as South Korea, Argentina and Brazil. In the space of just six months, global market perception of the i-LIMB Hand has evolved from exciting new technology to a widely accepted clinical option.

"I Can Still Be a Mother"

Home / Globe / Boston Globe Sunday Magazine {PART 2 of 2}

"I Can Still Be a Mother"
Her limbs gone but her heart strong, Monica Sprague begins the long road back to the life she knew, driven by the desire to be there for the husband who stood by her and the daughters who need her.

Monica Sprague Jorge's daughters Madalyn (left) and Sofia have been her daily inspiration. (Globe Staff / Suzanne Kreiter)
EmailPrint Text size – + By Doug Most
February 17, 2008

THE NURSES CHANGING the dressings on Monica Sprague's arms and legs a few times a day developed a unique routine. Most important was shielding Monica from seeing her own limbs - so they would distract her, ask her to close her eyes, or simply stand in her line of sight. And then they would slowly unwrap the cream-colored gauze slick with Vaseline from the tips of her fingers all the way up past her elbows and from the tips of her toes up past her knees. The limbs were dead, all black and shriveled, hard for anyone to look at, never mind the person whose own body they were attached to, and so once the bandages were off, a fresh coat of Vaseline was applied and fresh gauze delicately wrapped on.
related
{PART 1 of 2} Saving Monica
{PART 2 of 2} 'I Can Still Be a Mother'
Video Monica at home
photos: Part 1 Part 2

"Her hands were the most horrendous I'd ever seen," says Kate Davignon, one of the nurses in MGH's surgical ICU who helped change Monica's bandages. "Her fingers were the size of a child's. They were all shriveled, small and thin. They were black through and through, the nails and the skin."
The nurses were successful at protecting Monica from seeing her wounds, until one day when she stopped Davignon.
"I want to see," Monica said.
It was early in September 2007. Barely one month ago, Monica had given birth to a beautiful daughter, her second, and had been so close to going home healthy to her apartment in Ayer and starting her new life with her fiance, Tony Jorge, their newborn, Sofia Maria, and Madalyn, her bubbly and precocious 9-year-old from her first marriage. But that all seemed so long ago. Now Monica, a passionate, spry, and outgoing 35-year-old woman with a perpetual smile, was slowly accepting the hard truth that a rare and mysterious flesh-eating bacteria had nearly killed her in the hours and days after her delivery at Emerson Hospital in Concord and that she was alive only because of the fast and aggressive care she got from trauma surgeons at Mass. General.
But even they were not miracle workers. The bacteria were gone from her body, but not before doing irreparable and devastating damage. The only way she was going to live, the only way she was ever going home again was if she let doctors amputate both her arms and both her legs. Those surgeries were now days away, and Davignon, all of 28 and an MGH nurse for five years, had hoped to make it to the operations without Monica ever glimpsing her dead limbs. But Monica had insisted.
"Well, they're really pretty bad," Davignon replied when Monica said she wanted to look. "I'm not sure if you want to see."
"No, I want to see. I want to know what I have to work with."Continued...

VIDEO REPORT: Party with a Purpose

Saturday, Feb 09, 2008 - 07:33 PM
BY Nicki Mayo TriCities.comSend e-mail

To View Video click : http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2008-02-09-0013.html

A Bristol, Tennessee girl celebrates her tenth birthday by donating money to charity. Tricities.com’s Nicki Mayo reports on the party with a purpose.
Click monitor to the right to view video report.

“Most kids they like to get presents and they like to keep them,” said Alfred Cole. “It really makes me proud to know that she wants to do this for someone else,” adds the proud grandfather.

Kingsport Jericho Shriner, Alfred Cole is glowing over his granddaughter’s decision to donate money to the Jericho Shrine Orthopedic Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Last year I gave my toys away and this year I’m giving money away to Shriners Orthopedic,” said Ariana Hill.

The Avoca Elementary school student celebrated her birthday with a party with a purpose at the Sullivan County Volunteer Fire Department Saturday afternoon. Ariana says she doesn’t want to waste her birthday wishes on toy’s she’ll never play use.

“I get toy’s I never play with them. Just when I first get them I do. Then I forget about them,” said Hill.

Her friends had a ball playing with the fire engines and equipment. The party gave the children a chance to have fun and help fellow children in need.

“It felt really good because whenever you think that you’re helping somebody you’re giving it to one person, just think that you’re giving it to millions of people,” said partygoer Jessica Green.

Ariana hopes the money will go to help buy toys and clothes for the children at Shriners Hospital.

To Donate to Ariana’s Fund
-Make a check out to Jericho Shrine
- Write “Ariana” in the memo line.
-Mail or drop it off to/at:
Kingsport Jericho Shrine
1100 Sam Walton Drive
P.O. Box 5548
Kingsport, Tennessee
Zip Code 37663
http://www.webruler.com/shriners/jericho.htm

Click link to see the Jericho Shrine Orthopedic Hospital page: http://www.shrinershq.org/Hospitals/Greenville/

Source of inspiration: Injured soldier produces Giant emotions - NFL

PHOENIX -- To date, the United States has 3,940 confirmed deaths in Iraq. Back in May, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson, a battalion leader, very nearly found himself on that list. An IED (improvised explosive device) thoroughly shattered his body. Only 70 pints of blood, the exceptional field work of men in his 1st Infantry Division and the skill of doctors saved his life.
His legs weren't so fortunate.
The New York Giants, however, consider themselves blessed to have made this double-amputee's acquaintance. They credit Gadson, who played football at Army with New York wide receivers coach Mike Sullivan, with helping to salvage their season and making it something approaching superb. His stirring pregame speeches and his living example of courage and perseverance have inspired them all the way to Super Bowl XLII.
ESPN's Sunday Countdown
Check out Rachel Nichols' report, on Super Bowl Sunday, featuring U.S. Army Lt. Col. Greg Gadson's inspirational impact on the Giants. Sunday Countdown, 11 a.m. ET, ESPN
"I think sometimes I'm given a little too much credit for, quote, being inspirational," Gadson said on Monday in an interview at Walter Reed National Army Medical Center in Washington. "I may be, and if people take inspiration from that I'm glad and I'm grateful. But at the same time, I think I'm just trying to fight, and I'm trying to survive." For more of the story click here.