December 2021 – July 2024
Around 80% population with disabilities lives in the low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) and most lack access to prosthetic feet for high mobility, as the prices of current devices in the market lie far beyond the acceptable budget. Currently available prostheses like the SACH foot target low mobility users due to their basic design and focus on simplicity and robustness. To address this issue, EPFL and ICRC collaborated on the Innosuisse project to develop a prosthetic foot (Agilis) with advanced biomechanics for high mobility users. The initial prototype was tested in a pilot in Vietnam and the preliminary results were promising. With the proposed project, we aim to continue this successful collaboration for the evaluation of the functional performance and user acceptability of a newer version of the Agilis foot, before the ICRC launches it on the market. This evaluation will involve 200 amputees in Irak and Cambodia, with half of them fitted with an Agilis foot and others with a SACH foot. Participants from both groups will be evaluated six times using the Prosthesis Evaluation Questionnaire, 6 minutes Walking Test and Timed Up and Go test at the centers and thrice with a physical activity monitoring (PAM) of two weeks in real-world conditions. The participants will be equipped with wearable inertial sensors during the standardized tests and PAM and the overall protocol will last less than 12 months. Data from this study will be analyzed to understand how the Agilis foot improves the real-world ambulation of the users and whether this performance is better than SACH foot. More than 30 million people LMICs are in need of a prosthesis and this project can enable the Agilis foot to alleviate the suffering of these people.
EPFL PI: Prof. Kamiar Aminian, Prof. Jean-Philippe Thiran
Partner : Gregory Huot (ICRC)
Photo: The Agilis prototype currently in field testing with the ICRC.
