PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
serves as the company’s president and chief executive officer. “We began as a CMU spinoff in 2015, and we’ve continued to develop and expand on the ideas I began exploring in my doctoral work at CMU's Experimental Biomechatronics Laboratory,” he notes. These days at Humotech, Caputo is focused on further developing the Caplex system, including prosthetic and orthotic (or exoskeleton) variants, and applying it to solve real-world problems—now, as a tool to accelerate research in various laboratories around the country and, soon, as a tool to gather evidence to inform prescription and reimbursement. Caplex is a “robotic, wearable device that we program to mimic the behavior of conventional devices or to test novel device ideas,” explains Caputo. For prosthetics, the technology is worn like a conventional device; for prosthetic foot testing, the emulator attaches to the user’s residual limb with a standard pylon. “What makes it very different from other devices is that the
system is powered and controlled by an offboard actuator,” says Caputo. The company strives to help scientists and technologists improve the research and development process, so that it is more productive and more efficient, and results in products and solutions that are highly relevant to what people need. According to Caputo, “Our approach is very collaborative. Given how challenging this work is, we feel that is essential.” Caputo and his team have been working with researchers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Defense in testing the prosthetic foot emulator. These studies are testing the effectiveness of the Caplex system in improving the process of prescribing prosthetic feet by using the system to quickly and easily “test drive” prostheses with different characteristics, resulting in better mobility for lower-limb amputees. The Caplex system enables the researcher “to collect highly individualized outcomes data quickly in the clinic,
to immediately inform the prescription and reimbursement of the care of that patient. We see it as a complete paradigm shift as far as outcomes research is concerned,” he says.
Moving Forward
Caputo has several other O&P-related projects in the works. “My work continues to be focused on developing tools and systems that enable researchers— and, in the future, clinicians—to explore the important questions that interest them, so that instead of spending their time building parts and prototypes, they can focus their time on deepening their understanding of how to best assist the users of orthotic and prosthetic devices,” he says. “Ultimately, that leads to innovative breakthroughs and better outcomes for everyone. That’s true for the whole range of research interests—from foundational biomechanics research to the development of next-generation assistive devices to solving the challenges clinicians and patients face day to day.”
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O&P ALMANAC | SEPTEMBER 2019
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