iFIT Prosthetics, LLC
The principal business interest, a Wisconsin based company, iFIT Prosthetics LLC,® was founded in 2010 and is a Designated Veteran-Owned Small Business. Through nine years of NIH funding (STTR Phase I, II, IIB, and an SB1 Commercialization grant) adjustable transtibial (below knee) and transfemoral (above knee) prosthetic systems were designed, clinically tested, and commercialized with the goal of enhancing the lives of persons with limb loss and limb deficiencies. We are now very well poised to further advance care and expand our services. We are seeking like-minded companies, foundations, and international relief organizations to partner with us to enhance access to our high quality adjustable prosthetics. Through new alliances we want to make lower limb prosthetics readily available to persons who need them.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Medical Equipment
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
- Year Founded:
- 2010
About Us
iFIT Prosthetics, LLC ? was started to address the many shortcomings in conventionally fabricated prosthetic sockets. What continually struck Dr. Dillingham was the amount of time and effort invested into trying to make a hard socket fit a changing and compressible limb. He and his team developed an adjustable prosthesis that could be fit and aligned in a single clinic visit, and mass-produced using high strength injection molded polymer materials for high quality and consistency at more affordable prices.
THE CURRENT STATE OF PROSTHETIC FABRICATION
Conventional manufacture of prosthetic devices is time consuming and labor intensive and results in a hard socket. Fabrication often requires three or more visits to the prosthetist with multiple steps in the fabrication process. It is a labor intensive process requiring multple visits to create a single prosthetic socket.
Contemporary 3D printing of digitized residual limbs at central fabrication centers has automated this process. However, these 3D sockets are hard and non-adjustable and they do not account for tissue compressibility. iFIT sockets are priced at about one-fourth of the cost of conventional transtibial and transfemoral sockets.
MARKETS FOR THIS PRODUCT
iFIT Prosthetics was started with the vision of a “prosthesis in a bag”. Our self-contained prosthetic system is easily transported to impoverished nations or war torn countries and fit by healthcare professionals with some training regarding our device. We currently work with a physical therapist and prosthetist in Jamaica who fits patients with the iFIT device. The socket is very rugged and waterproof and has demonstrated that it holds up to very demanding use.
The United States market for this system is quite large and includes persons who experience volume changes in their residual limb shortly after amputation or because of heart and renal diseases. Children and adolescents with limb loss can benefit from the adjustability of the socket which accommodates growth.
ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE AND CLINICAL EXPERTISE
iFIT Prosthetics is fortunate to collaborate with an engineering firm in Wisconsin with considerable expertise—Advanced Design Concepts (ADC) Engineering, in Pewaukee, WI. ADC has worked with iFIT Prosthetics for over 9 years and brings a very important set of capabilities. ADC has worked with many fortune 500 companies to bring a design into a fully developed product in an efficient, costeffective manner.
These devices are clinically tested at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) biomechanics laboratory. These sockets are well received by persons with limb loss and we have produced several scientific studies analyzing the device.
Our Mission
Our mission is to produce high quality, affordable prosthetic devices that enhance the lives of persons with amputations.
Background
Years before founding iFIT, Timothy R. Dillingham, MD, MS, served in the US Army during the Persian Gulf War and as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigator, studying the needs of patients with limb loss. And while directing the prosthetic and orthotic clinic at Johns Hopkins University, he was amazed at the time and effort invested trying to make a hard socket fit a changing limb. Putting his engineering background and industrial manufacturing know-how into practice, he envisioned a prosthetic that could better adjust to individuals’ needs, thereby increasing use and boosting satisfaction.
Dr. Dillingham founded iFIT Prosthetics LLC® to advance the science of lower limb prostheses, and is especially grateful for the following partnerships:
- NIH offered valuable funding and insights to realize this vision of a self-contained, immediately fit, adjustable, transtibial prosthetic.
- Advanced Design Concepts, Inc., provided critical engineering support for this project from the very beginning, from designs to analyses to prototyping. Special thanks to Jim Marschalek, MS, lead engineer and Mark Schaefer, MS, ACD President.
iFIT Prosthetics is a veteran-owned American business proudly making products in Milwaukee, WI.
Our partner, Advanced Design Concepts, Inc. provides the engineering support for this project. ADC has been with us since the beginning and served as our engineering team, providing the designs, analyses, and rapid prototyping necessary to develop these products. Jim Marschalek, MS is the lead engineer who helped propel this project forward. Mark Schaefer MS, President of ADC, collaborated throughout the evolution of our product.