More than one million people undergo an amputation on a lower limb each year – one every 30 seconds. More often than not, new patients are fit with prosthetics that may not be in tune with how they walked before surgery.
Integrative physiology Ph.D. student Michael Isaacs wants to help. “People have to compensate for their prosthesis, and doing so for the duration of their lives can cause more health problems,” said Isaacs. “If you give people a smart prosthetic that is adaptable, it will help them in the long term.”