Veterans help prosthetic feet research that aims to increase comfort, flexibility
Veterans help create ‘foot library’ through VA
Minnesota veterans are helping researchers with the VA Medical Center to improve prosthetic feet for future generations that offer better comfort and flexibility.
(FOX 9) - A Minnesota veteran is teaming up with researchers at the VA Medical Center to help design a new kind of prosthetic foot that could make it easier for people with limb loss to wear different types of shoes.
Veteran partners with VA Medical Center to improve prosthetic feet
What we know:
Dave Taylor served in the U.S. Air Force for 24 years before losing the lower part of his leg in a motorcycle crash. He is one of an estimated 40,000 veterans in the country living with limb loss and has been participating in VA research to help solve everyday challenges for people who use prosthetics.
"When I came into the hospital, I had two feet. When I had left the hospital I did not," he told FOX 9.
Taylor says that many prosthetic feet are designed for just one heel height and shape, making it tough to switch between sneakers and boots.
"I wore boots for a long time. And when I had this happen, I couldn't get my foot into a boot, and I missed it," said Taylor. "And just getting that fit is very difficult. I spent a long time with the boot guy, and he did a great job, but. It wasn't my original pair of boots."
Dr. Andrew Hansen, a designer at the VA Medical Center, created a new prosthetic foot called the Moduheel. The foot focuses on the ankle and allows wearers to change shoes more easily
"I actually think this could change the way we do prosthetics in the future," Hansen told FOX 9.
Researchers say the Moduheel project started after Congress asked the VA to improve prosthetics for women veterans.
"It really came about because Congress had sort of said to the VA, like, hey, we need you to improve prostheses for women veterans. So, we had this idea and we pitched it to the VA, and we were successful in getting some funding to get started. And here we are," Hansen says. "We've also licensed it to a company and we're sort of working with them within a collaborative research and development agreement as well. But a lot of this work we're doing will actually make it commercially feasible."
The University of Minnesota College of Design is now working with the VA to build a digital foot library that could let veterans and others with limb loss shop a database for shoes that fit their needs.
The backstory:
The push for more personalized prosthetics grew out of earlier research during the COVID pandemic, when the lab focused on making better-fitting masks.
"We are our group is now has a large portion of the research that we do that is focused on personalization. So that personalization kind of started growing out of a need that existed during COVID to be able to fit better masks," Linsey Griffin, director of the Human Dimensioning Laboratory, told FOX 9. "And then we started working with the medical center and the pediatrics department there to create personalized systems for medical devices.
For Taylor, helping with this research is about giving back to those who helped him.
"I do it because it almost seems like the right thing to do. These guys helped me walk again, so. Least I can do is give back," Taylor said.
Local perspective:
"When you think about it with prosthetics, you know, there's a choice already being taken away, and then I think it's really it's a position where you can give them choice in so many things. It sounds really simple, but I feel like shoes are important to me, and I like being able to wear whatever shoes I want, and I'm passionate about shoes, honestly, so I feel that giving that choice back is really empowering," Research student Anuje Farhug told FOX 9.