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On Call with Dr. AP: Spanning the Country

I apologize for wavering on my vow to write a weekly post for our loyal readers, which is why I have decided to write two posts this week. February has been a busy month for us, with the team stretched across the continental US for a variety of events.

I would like to take a moment to update you on our recent travels.

From the AAOP Academy Annual Meeting in New Orleans, to the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation at the University of Maryland, to our first pair of successful fittings at Walter Reed Medical Center, I could not be more proud of the LIM Innovations team.

In a follow-up visit to Walter Reed Medical Center, we received more positive feedback on the Infinite Socket. It has been a great learning experience for our team, and an even better opportunity to work with our active duty military and veteran populations. We appreciate their dedication to provide feedback and help develop of the Infinite Socket.

A small team took to Baltimore with our first pediatric user in tow, where we were selected as a winner and received $50,000 in seed funds from the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation. Similar to our efforts with Walter Reed, we are honored to have received additional funding to improve pediatric care in prosthetics.

Just last week, we attended the 41st Annual Academy Meeting in New Orleans, where we debuted our LIM Provider Platform. With over 200 attendees at our booth, 94 prosthetists at our workshop, and 38 applications for our LIM Provider Network, the conference was successful.

We are excited about our varied efforts, serving multiple populations, and hope we can continue to improve the standard of care in the prosthetic industry. Your steady support has been critical to our growth.


I vow to give our dedicated readers a weekly commentary on industry trends, the latest LIM events, entrepreneurial lessons I learn as the CEO and Co-Founder of LIM Innovations, and pearls of wisdom as a practicing Orthopaedic surgeon. I ask you join me at the most obscure hours of the night as you all “take call” with Dr. AP. I view this as an opportunity for our supporters to connect with me and to share what happens behind the scenes here at LIM Innovations.

On Call with Dr. AP: AAOP Academy Meeting Recap

The LIM Innovations team got back from New Orleans late on Sunday night. We spent the previous week at the 41st Academy Annual Meeting (AAOP), where we debuted our new LIM Provider Platform.

We launched the Infinite Socket under a Limited Market Release on September 4, 2014 at the AOPA National Assembly in Las Vegas. Over the last five months, our ten clinical partners have provided us with generous feedback and assistance in researching and developing the Infinite Socket. They have helped us launch the Infinite Socket to the O&P community, and we are proud to announce its official release.

Over the course of the four-day exhibition in New Orleans, we had over 200 visitors at our booth, and 94 attendees at our two workshops. We were excited to meet new faces in the O&P community, and share some of our latest developments on the Infinite Socket.

The two workshops provided attendees with background on LIM Innovations, taught the skills needed to fit the Infinite Socket, and outlined the process to become a Certified LIM Prosthetist. We are proud to have received 38 applications to become a Certified LIM Prosthetist, and educated an additional 56 attendees on the opportunity.

If you were unable to attend our workshop at AAOP, we encourage you to contact us for more information on how to become a Certified LIM Prosthetist. Please reach out to info@liminnovations.com for more information.


I vow to give our dedicated readers a weekly commentary on industry trends, the latest LIM events, entrepreneurial lessons I learn as the CEO and Co-Founder of LIM Innovations, and pearls of wisdom as a practicing Orthopaedic surgeon. I ask you join me at the most obscure hours of the night as you all “take call” with Dr. AP. I view this as an opportunity for our supporters to connect with me and to share what happens behind the scenes here at LIM Innovations.

Moving Day

From the beginning of LIM, production has been extremely grateful to share workshop space with the prosthetic company SFPOS. Even the basement where we discuss administrative, marketing, and innovation needs has been a mixed space for assembly and production. Now as we continue to grow with orders and design changes, we’ve grown into needing our own lab space as well.

The owner of the building decided to clear out space he had been using as a silicone mold making lab, antique shop, and art studio- and offer it to us as the brand new LIM Innovations Production Headquarters. It’s a beautiful blank canvas now, and it’s exciting to watch new equipment define our vision for the future.

Our address on Divisadero will not be changing, the biggest difference here is how much more elbow room we’ll have and how much less stress SFPOS will have from us asking to borrow their tools. We want to honor the contributions SFPOS has made to our humble beginnings, and thank them as we grow into a strong contributor to the prosthetic industry.


Here at LIM Innovations we pride ourselves on the diversity of our team. We have a fantastic group of engineers, designers, machinists, clinicians, and amputees with relevant experience in the field. With such a diverse group working behind the scenes, we invite you to join one of our staff members each week for an in-depth look at what they bring to table. It is our goal to provide our loyal readers a behind-the-scenes look at LIM Innovations. Elizabeth Wandtke, Production Manager, picked up the pen this week to invite you to our new production facility here in San Francisco, CA.

Finding LIM Innovations

Everyone I’ve met at LIM Innovations exudes inspiration, innovation and determination. It’s a truly momentous thing when people like that come together to improve the lives of other people. To witness a modern day virtue of a humanitarian effort with the driving force of today’s rapidly changing world of technology and opportunity is nothing short of grand.

I found LIM while I was a student lost in the mire of being alone in my dreams. I pushed myself out into an Orthotics and Prosthetics conference in the Bay Area to illuminate my path. At this conference I would hold in my hands the Infinite Socket, which would illuminate everything.

As a son of a below-knee amputee and volunteer of Shriner’s Hospital for Children, I know the issues that come with a new lower limb prosthetic socket. I know and feel a fraction the frustration my Father had when he was waiting ever so long for a conventional socket. My Father is a man who leapt straight back into a several story building of work in a wheelchair mere months after his amputation. Every commute was done with one leg, among many other imaginable hardships. When it finally came time to visit the Prosthetist to try on his new socket, we were both frothing at the mouth in excitement. The moment he donned his prosthesis, his expression was priceless. He was the happiest he could be and I was stricken with a wash of relief. Although, sadly the day he was waiting for left him leaving the clinic without a socket, due to a problem with the fit. He was told to come back in another week, after already waiting several weeks.

When I held the Infinite Socket, I imagined a world where my Father’s first interaction with his new leg was unfettered from the inconvenience of a static old idea. An old idea where a person’s body stays the same shape at all times. An old idea that doesn’t flow with the ever changing beauty of the human anatomy. In my hand I was holding a compliment to such a beauty. The sleek black interface issued a simple design that fits nicely into the aesthetics of a computerized knee. Finally, a socket that matches the current innovations of prosthetic technology.

I would soon become very familiar with the Infinite Socket’s framework after meeting up with LIM’s gracious founders who let me, a lost unknown student come in and have a look around. That look around turned into a job where I worked with the production team on the front lines preparing sleek and strong carbon-fiber struts, plump and comfortable ischial seats, and distal cups that would make any residual limb feel right at home.

LIM Innovations represents a part of the human effort to make the world a better place.

 


Here at LIM Innovations we pride ourselves on the diversity of our team. We have a fantastic group of engineers, designers, machinists, clinicians, and amputees with relevant experience in the field. With such a diverse group working behind the scenes, we invite you to join one of our staff members each week for an in-depth look at what they bring to table. It is our goal to provide our loyal readers a behind-the-scenes look at LIM Innovations. Scott Jurgens, Production Technician, picks up the pen this week to discuss his experience on the production line.

On Call with Dr. AP: Walter Reed Medical Center

LIM Innovations sent a crew to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC last week. This is our third time visiting the facility, this time with Infinite Sockets in hand.

We are honored to collaborate with an institute like Walter Reed, and contribute to a better standard of care for both our active military and civilian populations. We want to do anything and everything we can to help our soldiers and bring confidence to our soldiers’ families that they will get the best possible care for their brave sons and daughters.

It is our goal to provide our military personnel with a prosthetic socket that allows them to retain the active lifestyle that they have always known. With the help of Walter Reed, we hope that the Infinite Socket can evolve to new heights.

Walter Reed sets the standard for care. We continue to see great application for our socket for both active military and civilians. Through its modular platform, the Infinite Socket can provide the ideal solution for both populations and open up a world of possibilities for users.

We are proud of our first successful fitting at Walter Reed, but understand that there is more work to be done to achieve our goal of returning our users to the activities they know and enjoy.


I vow to give our dedicated readers a weekly commentary on industry trends, the latest LIM events, entrepreneurial lessons I learn as the CEO and Co-Founder of LIM Innovations, and pearls of wisdom as a practicing Orthopaedic surgeon. I ask you join me at the most obscure hours of the night as you all “take call” with Dr. AP. I view this as an opportunity for our supporters to connect with me and to share what happens behind the scenes here at LIM Innovations.

User Driven Decisions

I was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2006. After a series of infections, I decided to amputate my leg in 2010. In the first five years since my amputation, I have learned a lot, and am still learning more.

One of the most important lessons I have learned is to control your condition and all decisions made about your residual limb and prosthesis. Our commitment to User Generated Innovation, here at LIM Innovations, got me thinking about the importance of user driven decisions. Your prosthetist is one of the best resources you have, but you are the one who has to live with your prosthesis.

I have been fortunate to receive great care from my prosthetists. They are receptive to my feedback, and provide me with the care I need and want. In just four years, I have received all the necessary equipment. I learned to walk on my 3R60. I learned to run on my 3R55. I became a runner with the 3S80. My prosthetist helped me make these decisions, but I had the final say. This is also how I made the choice to wear the Infinite Socket.

It is important to remember that you are the person who has to wear the prosthesis. It is your goals and aspirations that matter, and ultimately your decision to make.


Here at LIM Innovations we pride ourselves on the diversity of our team. We have a fantastic group of engineers, designers, machinists, clinicians, and amputees with relevant experience in the field. With such a diverse group working behind the scenes, we invite you to join one of our staff members each week for an in-depth look at what they bring to table. It is our goal to provide our loyal readers a behind-the-scenes look at LIM Innovations. Ranjit Steiner, Director of Marketing, picks up the pen this week to discuss the the importance of controlling your condition, and user driven decisions.

On Call with Dr. AP: Comps and Nominees

Last week, I discussed our goals for 2015 and the up-and-down journey of 2014. This week, I would like to look ahead to what has already been a promising 2015.

We ended 2014 with a feature in WIRED Magazine’s Third Annual Design Issue and a segment on San Francisco’s ABC7 News. We are going into 2015 with a number of competitions and nominations on the horizon.

We have been nominated for the 2015 INDEX Award: Design to Improve Life Award, National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation, and the SXSW Interactive Awards.

The Index Award is hosted in Denmark, sponsored by the Royal Family. We were selected by one of the Index Award Spotters, Sena Cerci. There is an opportunity for international exposure in stepping up to the ‘design to improve life challenge’, as well as a €500,000 cash prize. We are honored to receive international recognition from such a prestigious foundation, looking to improve lives through design.

The University of Maryland hosts the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation, where we have been selected to present as 1 of 12 finalists. This competition is similar to the Sheikh Zayed Prizes for Pediatric Device Innovation. It is a great opportunity to continue our involvement and development of pediatric prosthetic care.

We submitted the Infinite Socket to the SXSW Interactive Award in December of 2014. Our submission was reviewed, along with the rest of the competition, in early January. We are expecting an announcement of the finalists on Monday, January 26th. If LIM Innovations is selected as a finalist, we will have the opportunity to attend the event and a ceremony, where the winner will be announced.

We are excited and honored by the overall recognition in the industry, and hope the continued publicity can lead to more users achieving a better quality of life with the Infinite Socket.


I vow to give our dedicated readers a weekly commentary on industry trends, the latest LIM events, entrepreneurial lessons I learn as the CEO and Co-Founder of LIM Innovations, and pearls of wisdom as a practicing Orthopaedic surgeon. I ask you join me at the most obscure hours of the night as you all “take call” with Dr. AP. I view this as an opportunity for our supporters to connect with me and to share what happens behind the scenes here at LIM Innovations.

Wired Magazine Feature

Sockets have traditionally been like wooden clogs — made by hand, out of a single material, and ultimately rather unforgiving to wear. Now, a radical new socket  is giving amputees some control over a crucial part of their everyday lives. LIM’s creation, the Infinite Socket, is a complete rethinking of a crucial prosthetic component, bringing modern technology and thoughtful design to bear on a long-ignored pain point. Where traditional sockets are good for maybe an hour of comfortable walking, an early tester of LIM’s said he walked eight miles around hilly San Francisco on his first day with the prototype.

SAN FRANCISCO PROSTHETIC Orthotic Service, located just around the corner from the Painted Ladies, is a fairly standard prosthetics shop. There’s a receptionist or two in front, with some small rooms behind them where people get fit with prosthetics. Past the rooms, beyond an unmarked door, there’s a workshop where prosthetic parts are made. Here, tools hang on the walls above ovens and lathes, and everything seems to be covered in a fine coating of white plaster dust.

Read the Full Article

Andrew Seelhoff Testimonial

Andrew Seelhoff invites Lim on a beach stroll to share his story of how after undergoing amputation to reignite his life, he was faced with a life partnered with a “bucket” as a prosthetic socket. After much research, Andrew was fitted with the Infinite Socket and talks about the differences between this and the “bucket” he was faced with.


 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WJ_8WrGdvE&w=560&h=315]

LIM Innovations at AAOP

We are excited to announce our exhibit and workshop at the 41st Academy Annual Meeting at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans (AAOP). LIM Innovations will host a four-hour technical workshop on Wednesday, February 18th. We also invite you to join us at booths 76-77 to learn more about LIM Innovations and the Infinite Socket™

Our technical workshop will consist of three core segments. We will give a detailed presentation about LIM Innovations and our product line, train clinicians to fit the Infinite Socket, and invite new attendees to discuss potential clinical partnerships. We will breakdown the four-hour workshop as follows:

  • 1-hour presentation from Garrett Hurley – Co-Founder and Inventor
  • 15-minute break and meet-and-greet with the LIM Innovations team
  • 2-hour hands-on clinical training session with trained prosthetists and users
  • 45-minute additional Q&A and clinical partnership discussion

Andrew Pedtke, Co-Founder and CEO, will be available one-on-one appointments with interested clinical partners throughout the entire technical workshop. We encourage you to RSVP to RSVP@LimInnovations.com if you are interested in participating in the clinical training session, or if you would like to set an appointment to meet with Andrew.

We are proud to present below-knee prototypes and continued development on our above-knee model at AAOP.

Technical Workshop Specific Details

Workshop #29: A Breakthrough in Socket Design: The Infinite Socket™

Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Time: 1:00 – 5:00 PM

Location: Bolden 5, Level 2 in the Hyatt Regency New Orleans

Feel free to contact rsteiner@liminnovations.com for more details, or go to the AAOP website.

On Call with Dr. AP: Happy New Year

On behalf of LIM Innovations, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and take a moment to reflect. 2014 proved to be a fantastic year, and we are excited for 2015.

After founding the company nearly four years ago, with nothing more than a concept, the thought of going to market with a product seemed a distant reality.

There were hiccups along the way. There were moments of doubt and fear. There were times I wondered if we would ever have a viable product. There were thoughts of scrapping the entire project. There were mistakes.

There was success.

On September 4th, 2014, we launched the Infinite Socket. We built a team, concepts came to fruition, and we finally had a product worthy of the market.

2014 was the biggest year in our short history, and we hope to make 2015 even bigger. We have established clinical partnerships in more than 11 states, provided upward of 50 sockets, and established LIM Innovations in the marketplace.

As we continue to develop the Infinite Socket and expand our clinical network, we aim to breakdown new barriers.

In 2015, we will release a below-knee version of the Infinite Socket and break ground on a high-performance version. There are certainly other concepts that will emerge in 2015. If 2014 has taught us anything, it is to prepare for the unexpected.

Thank you to our clinical partners and loyal followers for making this a reality. We are happy to have you with us in the New Year.


I vow to give our dedicated readers a weekly commentary on industry trends, the latest LIM events, entrepreneurial lessons I learn as the CEO and Co-Founder of LIM Innovations, and pearls of wisdom as a practicing Orthopaedic surgeon. I ask you join me at the most obscure hours of the night as you all “take call” with Dr. AP. I view this as an opportunity for our supporters to connect with me and to share what happens behind the scenes here at LIM Innovations.

ABC 7: Bay Area Company Creates for Amputees

abc

ABC 7 News visited the LIM Innovations headquarters last Thursday for a behind-the-scenes look at how the Infinite Socket impacts amputees. Jonathan Bloom of ABC7 spent two hours with the production team, the two co-founders, and an above-knee amputee using the socket. He cut the video from his truck, and the segment went live on the 6 o’clock news that night. If you missed it, check out the full story.

Kaiser Amputee Clinic

During our trip to San Diego, we visited with Dr. Michael Jaffe from Kaiser Permanente. He invited us to an amputee clinic, where he and four prosthetists offered consultation to a variety of patients. In the clinic were a number of amputees, new and old, who shared their experience and received expert advice. The group spent ten minutes with each patient, leaving them with a clear direction for next steps in care. LIM Innovations was fortunate to sit in on the event, learn from a group of clinicians, and share the Infinite Socket with interested amputees.

Dr. Jaffe was happy to involve us, and submitted a short note about the clinic:

My buddy Bruce Bekkar, MD, gave me the email of a guy named Andre whom he had met at a TED talk.  Andre is working for a startup company who manufactures prosthetic limbs for above-the-knee amputees (AK).  I invited Andre to come to my monthly Amputee Clinic. It turned out to be quite the fortuitous encounter.

Our first patient was a 22 year old man who lost his left leg above the knee four weeks ago in a motor vehicle accident.  He came into our clinic clearly distraught, scared, and I could sense a feeling of hopelessness, and his parents even more so.

I asked the patient to wait until the end of the clinic to watch a demonstration put on by Andre’s team, Lim Innovations.  As the patient rolled back into the clinic an hour and a half later he was met by two Infinite Socket users, both in their 20s and both AK amputees, with the latest in Stance-phase control (electronic) prosthetics with the new Lim suspension socket-the innovative design of which I had never seen before. These guys where fit and happy, one of them is a professional model and the other is training for the Paralympics.

You could see the vail of confusion and sadness lift as the 22 year old amputee sat in a circle along with me and six prosthetists all asking clinical questions of LIM CEO.  The patient even joined in with his own clinically relevant questions.

At the end of the presentation the new amputee announced he wanted to be a Beta tester for the new socket.  When the clinic was over the new amputee shook my hand, looking me in the eye and stated, “I am very excited, and when can I get started?”

Mike Jaffe, D.O.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Kaiser San Diego

CNC Machines and Prosthetics

I came to LIM wanting to learn.  After this last year, I learned so much about prosthetic and even more about CNC machines, and so began my dreams of machines and their code.

My role at LIM is to fabricate many of the custom parts for our prosthetic sockets. We are constantly developing new ideas to implement on existing and future designs. Currently, we employ the use of 3D printers, CNC laser cutters, water jet, and a CNC milling machine. CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control.

Once a part has been designed into a 3D model, it is defined into code for the machine you plan on using. A computer is connected to a machine to automate and repeatedly execute parts precisely. Each machine uses specific materials and has its own set of capabilities.

My personal love is the CNC Tormach Milling Machine. It cuts plastic, aluminum, steel, and titanium all with the right specs. I have spent extensive time with this machine, cutting metal into presses or simple components. Its 3-axis system can cut in three dimensions across the X, Y, and Z plane. This machine trumps other machines at making 3D contoured shapes. Depending on how you orient the part, cutting bits, and other inputs, it can cut organic shapes in blocks of material. This is particularly important when making molds or trying to mimic biology.

Our aluminum distal plates are made entirely on the CNC Tormach Milling Machine. Depending on the amputation type, each of our plates allow different, yet accurate, adduction angles. The distal plate’s interface connects distal components, including knees and feet, by simply mounting one piece.

Many of these machines are integrated into the fabrication of our socket, but we are always looking for new or different ways to make parts. LIM excels at understanding existing machines with new materials and applying it to a better prosthetic socket.


Here at LIM Innovations we pride ourselves on the diversity of our team. We have a fantastic group of engineers, designers, machinists, clinicians, and amputees with relevant experience in the field. With such a diverse group working behind the scenes, we invite you to join one of our staff members each week for an in-depth look at what they bring to table. It is our goal to provide our loyal readers a behind-the-scenes look at LIM Innovations. Kendrick Coburn, Prototyping and Production Engineer, picks up the pen this week to share his love for CNC Machines and how he uses them to create components for the Infinite Socket.

How the Infinite Socket is like an iPhone

At LIM Innovations, we strive to defy convention.  Our Infinite Socket embodies this intention in a couple major ways: By design and model.

Conventional prosthetic sockets have forever been a fixed rigid shape.  They contain a finite volume and for most intensive purposes, the alignment is inherently built into them.  Conventional sockets are like a work of art, a one-time snapshot of an object that interacts with a residual limb.

The problem? A residual limb is anything but fixed and rigid.  Short-term and long-term volume fluctuations like temperature changes, eating a meal containing a high sodium level, undergoing dialysis and seasonal changes (like the upcoming Holiday Season) are a few examples that can leave the user in a constant battle to maintain the appropriate fit.

This is one of the many reasons why we designed the Infinite Socket to be dynamic and flexible: to give the user the ability to tackle their volume fluctuations in a simple, user-friendly way without sacrificing control of their prosthesis.

The analogy I like to use is wearing a conventional socket is like wearing a clog versus wearing the Infinite Socket is like a high-performance running shoe.  It’s designed to work with the residual limb, not against it; a concept we like to call the Dynamic Motion Frame.

So what about the Model?  An iPhone is composed of the phone itself (the hardware) as well as an operating system and apps (the software) that together constitute the platform and create the user’s experience.  We feel the modularity of Infinite Socket is a platform.  The Base Plate and Struts are ‘hardware’ and the Distal Cup, the 3D printed Ischial Seat and the Brim are the ‘software’.  Just as operating systems and apps are updated, so is our software.   Our Innovations Team uses User Generated Innovation (UGI) to drive our software updates and we have many planned throughout 2015.

As we release new brims, suspension methods, and new ischial seat designs, the user can update them with their LIM Clinician. Rather than undergo a lengthy conventional socket replacement (weeks of appointments and high costs) the user can simply swap out one of the many modular components for an updated version in one quick visit.

Empowering our users requires thinking unconventionally and unconventional thinking allows the Infinite Socket to create Infinite possibilities.

Platform Prosthetics 566x310


Here at LIM Innovations we pride ourselves on the diversity of our team. We have a fantastic group of engineers, designers, machinists, clinicians, and amputees with relevant experience in the field. With such a diverse group working behind the scenes, we invite you to join one of our staff members each week for an in-depth look at what they bring to table. It is our goal to provide our loyal readers a behind-the-scenes look at LIM Innovations. Clinical Director, Jon Smith, picked up the pen this week to share how the Infinite Socket is similar to the iPhone and provides users with a dynamic system for their residual limb.