Prosthetics Team Awarded $2.1 Million Grant

The Ohio Department of Development (ODD) recently announced that it has recommended a $2.1 million prosthetics-development grant to a team including Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland State University, and Ohio Willow Wood, Mt. Sterling, Ohio. According to ODD, the grant's purpose is to develop a better transfemoral prosthesis, one that would incorporate electrorheological (ER) fluids and electronic controls.

According to Ohio Willow Wood, the research project aims to "develop and bring to market a transfemoral prosthesis that enables rapid rehabilitation and sustained ambulatory lifestyle for all transfemoral amputees, with a special focus on injured military personnel." The Industrial Physicist journal describes ER fluids as dense suspensions of micrometer-sized particles in liquids, which stiffen to the consistency of a gel or harder when an electrical field is applied to them. It says they "can replace some intricate moving parts, making [them] attractive to manufacturers in search of innovative cost-cutting measures." Ohio Willow Wood describes ER fluids as "extremely responsive to electric fields and can change from a liquid to gel to liquid in milliseconds."

Ohio Willow Wood stated in a press release that "the quick viscosity changes of ER fluids would allow the planned prosthesis to adjust automatically by changing the electric current through the fluid. The application of ER technology would permit the prosthetic's rapid response to the changing demands an amputee can place on their prosthesis in regards to walking, standing, running, and climbing stairs. The planned prosthesis will provide energy storage with controlled energy release."

Jim Colvin, Ohio Willow Wood's director of engineering, will serve as his company's project lead. "This is a three-year project that will allow for meticulous development," said Colvin. "Everyone on this team is eager to work on a new application of existing technology that will change the lives of transfemoral amputees. While this product will be an addition to the current landscape of prosthetic knees, it will be highly unique, offering more function and responsiveness than current products available to clinicians and their patients."

Ohio Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, director of ODD, stated in an ODD press release, "The collaboration demonstrated by the State, our universities and research institutions, and our private companies illustrate the highest level of work we can do together to improve the health and quality of life for our citizens."

Funding for the project would be provided through the Ohio Biomedical Research Commercialization Program, which also recommended an additional $20.9 million in grants to five other medical research projects. The funding is contingent on the approval of Ohio's State Controlling Board.