ProsFit is not actually a British company, but a Bulgarian company founded by two Brits, Alan and Christopher Hutchison, father and son. The company started activities in August 2013, funding it as a family until we established proof of concept, and a legal entity was established in 2014.

ProsFit have developed a solution for the design and manufacture of prosthetic limb sockets. The co-founder of ProsFit, Christopher Hutchison, is a double amputee. After he was fitted with prosthetics in a rather Victorian and artisanal manner, we decided to bring technology to the table, starting with the digital scanning of the limb to 3-D printing of the socket. In this way we offer a full solution from scanning to the manufacturing of the socket.

ProsFit in Bulgaria

Our relationship with Bulgaria is that in dark times we found a lot of light shining here. Our Bulgarian friends demonstrated great empathy after Christopher’s accident and after coming twice on holiday, we decided to move here, starting the company one year later. 

In terms of the markets we address, we do very little as such in Bulgaria. We use Bulgaria as our base from which we serve customers ranging from Australia to Canada. For example, we have recently signed a memorandum of understanding in Rwanda to perform prosthetic fitting as part of a national capacity building project. So, Bulgaria has become our global base. 

The values inherent in Bulgaria are very important to us. As an industrial engineer with an Oxford education and always involved in business development, focused on new technology and commercialisation, clusters and technological ecosystems, I sensed in 2011 that Bulgaria was going to be the next innovation centre in Europe. This was one of the other reasons why we came here, before we even thought of ProsFit. 

There is a huge resource of young educated people here, which if at one time untapped, is now in danger of becoming over-tapped.  The level of education and the work ethic are admirable. The people I work with in ProsFit, who have been with us since the beginning, are hard-working, trustworthy. I’m very happy that we started this initiative in Bulgaria, rather than in Switzerland, and not just for cost reasons, but the level of commitment is very strong here. 

I have worked all over the world, and it was so straight forward to set up the company here and would recommend other people to do so. You have to find someone locally you trust and helps guide you through the system such as the BBBA, whose role it is to help manage that process. 

Innovation

In 2017 we were awarded the Bulgarian President’s prize for innovation. It was actually two awards, one for general innovation, as well as social impact. In addition to recognition in Bulgaria, we have also won a number of awards including the Toyota Global Startup Award. 

Many within the industry consider us as “disruptors” rather than innovators. There is a certain amount of resistance to what we are doing. On the other hand, there are plenty of customers who actually want change, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where maybe only 20% of amputees are fitted with anything. We have signed an MOU in Rwanda and are in negotiation with several other African countries at a national level. We will be involved in innovation in challenging environments and we’re doing this as a Bulgarian company. 

Design process

We don’t manufacture the sockets ourselves, because this requires high-end equipment. We decided to work with Hewlett Packard, and we have an HP case study for information. We work with subcontractors who use HP 3D printing equipment and we certify them to make our products which are distributed all over the world. 

The socket is the part that fits on the residual limb and then there are the standard components such as the foot, knee and tubes. The industry is quite consolidated with two major companies controlling about 80% of the components in the world. We are changing the dynamics of the industry for them, but we are happy to say that Ottobock, one of the main manufacturers, has just opened a plant in Bulgaria for mobility devices, and we’re proud that they followed our lead and came here.

Connections with the BBBA

We did our early pre-clinical work in the UK and worked with a UK university. One of our initial aims was to work with the NHS. However, as a result of spending so much unproductive time going around in circles trying to get into their system, we found it much easier to work in other countries. 

I hope at some time we will be able to resume talks with the NHS, because the benefits are clear. We won the project in Rwanda because we showed them that every dollar spent on fitting an amputee brings 2.4 dollars back into the economy. In Kenya this figure is 6, and in the UK it would be above 10. 

We look forward to working with the BBBA and using their support network in the UK. The commercial and technological benefits are very clear, but the system for prosthetics in the UK is not yet adapted to adopt new technologies. 

Vision for the next five years

It took us 6 years to build the foundations of the company, and we are now starting to scale up with a full industrial mindset and our aim is to fit 20 million prosthetics in the world, or about 30% of all amputees in the world. Our vision in many ways is not to have a business, but we do and we want to improve the lives of amputees.