Ifeanhealth-Amparo Partnership Offer Hope To Amputees With Faster, Mobile, Remouldable Prosthetic

By Olanma Kalu

For Nigerians living with limb loss, the IfeanHealth.com Amparo exclusive partnership has unveiled faster, affordable and remouldable prosthetic solutions to break rehabilitation barriers, restore mobility and help amputees reclaim independence and dignity.

The intervention confronts a harsh reality for thousands of amputees: losing a limb is only the beginning of another struggle to access and afford prosthetic devices that restore mobility.

IfeanHealth.com estimates that about 2.6 million Nigerians are living with amputations, with up to 200,000 new amputations occurring annually. The organisation says most of its patients with limb loss have suffered diabetes-related complications.

Beyond the cost of the prosthesis itself, patients may face repeated visits to specialised facilities, long-distance travel and additional expenses whenever a socket requires adjustment or replacement.

It is against this backdrop that IfeanHealth.com has entered into an exclusive technology partnership with Portugal-based amparo-prosthetics.com Technologies, aimed at expanding access to faster, mobile and remouldable prosthetic socket care in Nigeria.

The training which held at the IfeanHealth.com corporate head office, Lagos, Tuesday reached its peak with a live Majicast demonstration, practical skills sessions and hands-on engagement between international experts and Nigerian clinicians.

The partnership brings the question of affordability and access to the centre of Nigeria’s rehabilitation challenge: how can amputees obtain timely prosthetic care without being trapped in repeated journeys, prolonged fitting processes and mounting costs?

Cost, Distance Compound Amputees’ Burden

For an amputee, obtaining a prosthesis can be a prolonged process.

Vanessa Carvalho, an international trainer who led the Amparo training, said conventional procedures can require four to seven visits, while the Amparo process can produce a socket in less than two hours, with the patient involved throughout the fitting.

The approach allows adjustments to be made during the same session rather than requiring patients to return repeatedly to a specialist facility.

For patients living far from rehabilitation centres, the difference could reduce the burden of transportation and repeated appointments while enabling earlier rehabilitation.

The technology is also designed to accommodate changes in the residual limb. Rather than immediately replacing the socket as the limb changes shape, the socket can be reheated and remoulded.

Cost Goes Beyond The Device

Ejike Anih, Chief Executive Officer of IfeanHealth International, said the true cost of prosthetic care extends beyond the price of the device.

Transportation, repeated appointments, clinical time, infrastructure and future modifications all add to the burden on patients.

Howard Russell, another international trainer, also noted that the cost comparison involves several variables, including equipment, infrastructure, staff time, materials and future remoulding or replacement.

For patients, repeated travel to treatment centres is another part of the cost.

The issue, therefore, is not simply how much a socket costs to produce, but how much patients must spend over the course of receiving and maintaining prosthetic care.

Adults Face Limited Structured Support

The affordability challenge is particularly stark for people who cannot independently finance prosthetic rehabilitation.

Anih said supports people from low-income backgrounds by helping them secure funding or assistance.

For children, he cited Stanbic IBTC’s Together4ALimb (T4AL) programme, which he said has provided prosthetic limbs – through IfeanHealth.com – to 250 beneficiaries across Nigeria over the past 12 years.

For adults, however, Anih said there is no comparable programme.

Instead, assistance may have to come through potential sponsors, religious leaders, community leaders and other individuals. IfeanHealth.com also negotiates discounts with partners and says available reductions are passed on to patients.

That leaves affordability as a continuing concern for adults who require prosthetic devices but lack the resources to pay for them.

Diabetes-Related Amputations Add Pressure

The prosthetic care challenge is closely linked, in IfeanHealth’s experience, to diabetes-related complications.

Anih said most of the organisation’s patients with limb loss have undergone amputation as a result of diabetes complications, with many being elderly.

For these patients, prosthetic rehabilitation requires continuing attention as their physical condition changes and their sockets require modification.

The financial pressure associated with chronic illness can therefore intersect with the cost of obtaining and maintaining a prosthesis.

A device may restore mobility, but only if patients can reach the service, afford it and obtain the follow-up care required to keep it functional.

Mobile Care Takes Services Closer

Mobility is a central feature of the Amparo technology.

Anih said ifeanhealth.com operates in six (6) cities: Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Kano, Sokoto & Delta and plan to expand its services to other parts of Nigeria.

Because the Majicast equipment is mobile, he said the same optimal patient outcomes can potentially be delivered across their extensive network of clinics without the expensive fixed infrastructure associated with conventional prosthetic fabrication.

That offers a potential response to the geographical barrier confronting patients who live far from specialist centres.

Instead of requiring patients to make every journey to a central facility, the service can potentially be taken closer to them.

For patients already struggling with mobility, the ability to reduce travel is a significant part of the attraction of a mobile system.

Faster Fitting, Earlier Rehabilitation

The partnership also seeks to shorten the period between amputation and the beginning of prosthetic rehabilitation.

Russell said conventional processes can take weeks or even months before an initial prosthesis is ready. The Amparo approach allows an initial socket to be fitted earlier because it can subsequently be remoulded as the residual limb changes.

He said earlier access to prosthetics, combined with appropriate rehabilitation and coaching, could help new amputees regain mobility sooner.

Carvalho said involving patients directly in the fitting process allows clinicians to respond to their needs during the same session.

The emphasis is therefore on reducing delays and repeated adjustments while providing care that can adapt to the changing needs of the patient.

Training Builds Local Clinical Capacity

The IfeanHealth.com Amparo initiative is also a skills-transfer programme.

Lawrence Katden, Head of Prosthetics and Orthotics at IfeanHealth explained that the training represents not merely the introduction of a new technology but an effort to transfer skills and modern clinical practice to Nigerian practitioners.

Under the conventional process, a faulty or poorly fitting socket may require the patient to return another day and the clinician to restart significant portions of the work.

With the Amparo approach, Katden said, adjustments can be made progressively, potentially reducing wasted time, resources and repeated visits for both patients and clinicians.

Dauda Mohammed, Head of Physiotherapy at IfeanHealth, described the international training as an important component of professional development and local capacity building.

He said bringing Amparo trainers from Portugal to Nigeria gives Nigerian clinicians exposure to modern prosthetic socket techniques while strengthening their ability to provide more efficient services locally.

For clinicians, he said, the technology elevates the clinical care provided at IfeanHealth to the most modern global standards.

Limb Loss Is Not The End

For Nigerians living with limb loss, the ultimate concern remains the ability to regain independence, but Anih provided a gentle reminder: “Losing a limb is not losing a life.”

He said amputees can walk, dance and return to their lives with appropriate support.

But access to that possibility depends on more than the availability of a new technology. Patients need prosthetic devices, skilled clinicians, rehabilitation, follow-up care and financial support.

The IfeanHealth Amparo partnership is targeting to address some of those barriers through faster fitting, mobile service delivery and remouldable sockets.

*Olanma Kalu, a Prosthetic medical expert, wrote in from Lagos