In describing the way many people think about orthotics, Sophomore Computer Science Major Param Shah asks: “Do you remember Forrest Gump?”
The cumbersome leg braces the film’s title character wore as a child remain one of the most recognizable depictions of orthotics. It’s an exaggerated image—most orthotics aren’t creaky metal anymore, and the corrective devices range vastly from shoe inserts to spinal braces—but Shah and his startup partner Alex Mathews insist the technology hasn’t advanced as far as it should have.
That’s where they envision their new company, Fusiform, coming in.
The med-tech startup, which Shah and Mathews launched with a team of five other Johns Hopkins University students last year, aims to develop a faster, cheaper, software-driven alternative to the tedious and costly hand-casting process that still dominates the orthotics industry.
Excerpted from The Hub.