Discussion with Dr. Viquar Qurashi

We had a zoom call with Dr. Viquar Qurashi, our partner from the Naya Quadam organization, and presented our current progress and future plans to him. Dr. Qurashi is a surgeon living in London whose organization has for many years been providing leg prostheses to people in low-income countries who cannot afford them free of charge.

He told us how he helped a boy who lost his hand in an accident while flying a kite which touched an electric cable. Dr. Qurashi was asked for help, and in the absence of more fleshed-out solutions, he tackled the problem in a very practical way: He got several items from a hardware store and constructed a gripper from these simple materials.

We were quite impressed by his practical approach, which to us shows how even a simple solutions can already make a big difference.

Another important takeaway from the meeting was that in Viquar's experience, for many amputees, having a cosmetic hand that looks as much as possible as a real human hand is the most important part. Many amputees that have one intact hand can use this hand to perform the most important tasks (quite a different situation than for amputated legs!) Therefore, having a realistic-looking hand prosthesis is often the top priority, and cannot be sacrificed for better functionality. This is an important point we want to keep in mind in our design.