It all started in a village.
Our founding story.
Looking down at the Himalayas from a twin propellor plane, I was filled with raw emotion. More fear than excitement at that time as I just wanted to be alive when we landed.
My name’s Param and I’m the cofounder and CEO of Fusiform, which didn’t exist when I first visited Himachal Pradesh, India on a service trip to improve sanitation and lifestyle in the villages there.
The Himalayas was the next target for my brand new DSLR, however I brought back a lot more than photos from that trip. Traveling through villages to teach people about micro-financing and build proper sewage systems, I noticed an unusual number of children with disability. The result of this trip was the founding of a nonprofit, the Lotus Life Foundation whose mission is to eliminate the stigma of disability in rural India through medical intervention and education.
While our partner nonprofits facilitated social inclusion programs, it became my responsibility to create medical device distribution pipelines and clinics, primarily providing orthotic and prosthetic devices.
Orthotics are externally-worn braces that modify and correct the growth of the musculoskeletal system, whereas prosthetics are artificial limbs. The results of using one of these devices is life-changing: the ability to walk, increased social inclusion and improved mental health to mention a few. And we were giving top-quality medical treatment and devices to people where access to medicine was scarce if any.
Following a clinician to some of our patients’ homes for routine checkups, my bubble was burst when I saw a child whose legs were covered in pressure sores due to wearing an incorrectly fitted device for nearly a month. In other houses, devices were simply thrown away because they did not fit or were perceived badly by the community. People even believed our promised treatment was a fraud because they had to wait nearly a month for their device.
Coming back to the US to attend Johns Hopkins University, I realized that the same problems were reflected here in the most privileged parts of the country. This was because orthotic and prosthetic devices were still being made completely by hand with processes dated back to 1970.
Patients are waiting a month to receive a device that cost an exorbitant price, clinics are fabricating devices by hand, and device order forms are handwritten and faxed.
A bigger question started to form: Could we convince this industry to change?
I met my cofounder Alex (also the CTO) at Hopkins and we decided to change the whole supply chain, from patient assessment to manufacturing of devices. We started Fusiform with the goal to get a patient a beautiful, custom orthopedic device while they are still in the waiting room, not a month later.
Fusiform is an exercise in changing long-standing perspectives. We are answering many questions:
Can we replace hand-casting with 3D scanning?
Can we fully automate the process of manufacturing a custom device for every patient?
Can we convince an outdated industry that the future is here?
Making a device is an art, a tradition brought down through several generations, and we will respect the artistic and compassionate process of producing these devices as we move forward.
To the clinicians, family, and friends that have supported us so far, we will create a better industry together worldwide. After all, it all started in a village.
