Endolite’s Linx Prosthetic Limb Takes Home Best in Show Award

For those who are born without, or lose a natural limb understand the obstacles and challenges that are ahead in their daily lives. In the wise words of Charles Darwin, all living organisms, including humans face the scientific evolutionary fact of ‘survival of the fittest.’ That said, as humans are the most advanced life-forms on Earth, we have adapted not only through a biological evolution, but also through technological advancements. In other words, the ability to manufacture and continuously innovate high-end prosthetics is evidence that we are an adaptive race that combines technology with our biological needs.

On June 13, Endolite’s Linx system, a lower limb prosthetic technology, received the highest honors at the 2017 Medical Design Excellence Awards in New York. Not only did Endolite receive the Gold Medal Award in Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Products category, but they were also named out of forty-five finalists, the Best in Show Award. The medtech industry award show was based on  the following criteria: Design and Engineering Innovations, Functional (User-Related) Innovations, Benefits to Overall Healthcare, Benefits to Patients and Market Differentiation. By fulfilling each of the judged criteria, Endolite, a US branch of the Blatchford Group, shed light on their 125 year devotion to the designing and manufacturing of cutting edge prosthetics.  

In light of their most recent accomplishment, Linx is the first fully integrated, microprocessor-controlled lower limb system, helping above-knee amputees. According to Endolite, the Linx ankle talks to the knee at a rate of 400 messages per second, which gives lower limb amputees the ability to live a more active and independent lifestyle. This particular prosthetic limb functions by combining four microprocessors and seven situational awareness sensors, as a means of collecting data on the individual user’s day to day activity and their terrain. As a result, all of the data collected is used to help the prosthetic limb adapt in order to mimic a human limb tailored to that particular patient. This means that over the course of a day, the Linx system will adjust over 2000 times in order to adapt to both the anatomical body structure, as well as the surrounding environment.

Endolite’s success stems from the acknowledgement that quality prosthetics are vital for long term musculoskeletal health. Therefore, after being awarded with the highest honors as a top of the line medtech company, it is apparent that they value constant innovation through their engineering front. By developing high end devices that mimic the response time to a human limb, Endolite strives to give amputees the ability to walk or run, while also eliminating pain. Other prosthetic devices tend to create discomfort and pain to the patient, considering they do not easily adapt to the individual user or their surrounding environments. For example, sixty one percent of lower limb amputees often experience chronic back pain after 2 years of the amputation. As a result, this puts stress on the rest of the body as it can lead to both osteoarthritis in the knee and/or hip, as well as increased energy expenditure on the heart.

Overall Endolite, is revolutionizing the prosthetic industry one bionic step at a time.

Evan Slass is a Digital Marketing Communications Specialist for Rotor Clip Company.