Prothesia Facilitates Access to Orthotics and Prosthetics in Latin America

Gone are the traditional methods of manufacturing orthoses and prostheses. 3D printing has made it possible to create these types of medical devices, making them lighter, stronger and adjustable to the specific needs of each person. Prothesia, a Mexican company, takes advantage of technology to offer better solutions to people with amputations or mobility problems. In addition to manufacturing, Prothesia functions as a network that connects patients with the best prosthetists and doctors in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. We spoke with its CEO, Francisco Valencia, who shared with us Prothesia’s work.

3DN: Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your relationship with 3D printing?

Hi! I’m Francisco Javier Valencia Valdespino, and I started 3D printing thanks to a fellow mechatronics engineer, Gustavo. Gus was about to leave his life in Mexico for a year to travel to Asia as a missionary. Among the things he left behind was his printer, which he donated to me. I gladly accepted and put it to work to generate income to support my friend in his project. This led me to start a 3D printing agency in 2017, printing everything from art, anatomical models and ankle foot orthoses. The relationship with 3D printing became closer, more interesting, and it demanded more and more of my time (and money), but it didn’t matter as long as the machine finished a job successfully.

The feeling of waking up in the morning and seeing the finished 8-hour piece was like being on Christmas Eve and looking forward to Christmas every morning, although sometimes that piece ended up being a big spaghetti. This last part taught me the value of iterations, resilience and having version control not only for prototypes, but for all projects that were to come. This led me to explore open source projects like Enable, which sparked a great curiosity of printing medical devices, something that would have more impact than a Pikachu keychain or a vase, something that was of interest to me since I come from a family that works in the healthcare system. Being able to use my engineering knowledge for healthcare was something I was very excited about.