$20 Brace Designed for Children with Clubfoot by 2 Stanford Students

Clubfoot is a common birth defect that afflicts about one baby in every 1,000 live births. It is a genetic defect that shows in children in both developed and developing countries. Treatment methods include surgical release and a series of castings before the child is made to wear a brace. The manipulation of the feet is usually done within two weeks after the birth of the child, with therapy usually lasting for at least four years. Two Stanford students cooperated with Miraclefeet to create an orthopedic brace that not only looks great, but is easy to use and costs very little.

Miraclefeet

North Carolina-based Miraclefeet is an organization that works to help children around the world get treatment for clubfoot. The organization partners with orthopedic surgeons in public hospitals in developing countries for the support and establishment of clubfoot clinics. From their work in several communities they gathered that the common problem faced by parents whose children have clubfoot is the lack of an easy to use and cheaper brace. The organization approached the Hasso Platner Institute of Design of Stanford University and presented the challenge of creating an innovative, functional, easy to use and affordable clubfoot brace. They wanted something that would cost about US$20.

New brace designers

Stanford whiz kids Ian Connolly and Jeff Yang took up the challenge. They traveled to Brazil to learn how the treatment of children with clubfoot was done there. They found out that the brace the local doctors use were made from curve aluminum rods that were actually bent by the physicians in a form that the children hated to wear. Because the design was so poorly executed, most of the children fell over when they tried to stand or walk.

The Miraclefeet brace

Connolly and Yang studied the concept of how the clubfoot brace was constructed and using modern design technology came up with a design that was truly functional and modern. Instead of metal rods, they chose to use a light plastic frame. The injection molded brace locks the child’s feet in the correct therapeutic position. With plastic, they were able to come up with colorful braces that look like toys yet enable children to play and stand without help. They were also able to keep the cost to US$20, compared to the former steel braces that cost between US$300 to US$700.

They made improvements on the previous brace design, which allowed the shoes to be detached from the brace using a cleat that is custom-made. With this small improvement, it made it easier to slip the shoes on the child before the shoes are attached to the brace itself.

The brace is also more stable with the wider base allowances and the rubber grommets, which allow the children to walk with less effort and stand without requiring assistance.

With the injection method solution that Yang and Connolly came up with, it makes sure that the brace will have uniform consistency in its manufacture and meet the therapeutic specifications without room for error.

Jeff Yang and Ian Connolly and representatives of Miraclefeet are very satisfied and optimistic about this new clubfoot brace. They have high hopes for this product, as stated in Wired.com:

“Before this brace becomes the standard of care, it will face challenges. In parts of Brazil, doctors often stay faithful to less effective solutions because they make more money delivering them. Also, instead of being adjustable like competitive braces, the molded nature of Yang and Connolly’s design means patients will have to buy a new brace as the child grows, adding cost. Despite these drawbacks, the concept has performed well in clinical studies. The designers plan to put it before the FDA, which would allow it to be sold in the U.S. The designers hope to get off on the right foot in 2014 and put over 15,000 units into circulation by the end of the year.”

Photo credit: Taken by Dolmanrg under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.