Last week, D-Rev kicked off its 1,000 Knees Campaign to support field trials for the third version of the ReMotion prosthesis, which includes a host of new features.  As with any field trial, the central objective is to study the product’s performance.

D-Rev's 1,000 Knees Campaign is raising money to fund a field test of its ReMotion knee. Next step: mass production and distribution through the market. Photo Credit: Joel Sadler

Our primary goals are to verify that the product is working as intended and to provide amputees with a high-quality knee prosthesis designed specifically for the environment and activities typical of those living on less than $4 per day.

Although fitting the knee to 1,000 patients will make a significant impact, the benefits of the trial will not end there. D-Rev’s trial is the first step towards a self-sustaining program. Consider some of the activities that will be part of the trial:

• Partnering with multiple clinics, chosen for their ability to supply trained staff capable of providing a quality fit (without this, even the best components would be rendered useless).
• Developing a distribution method capable of delivering units to multiple geographies.
• Supporting multiple teams of prosthetists, by developing standardized guides and troubleshooting manuals to efficiently train prosthetists on how to properly fit the knee joint.

By accomplishing these goals, we will conclude the field trial with a system in place to continue scaling the ReMotion knee to clinics across the globe. Scaling will then be done through the market, without requiring donors to sponsor knees or support trials (for more on why D-Rev does not donate products to end users, see Krista’s post from yesterday).

Ultimately, our goal is to fit far more than 1,000 amputees. We believe the best way to do this is to make the knee available on the market by creating a sustainable system that can scale to meet the global need, and successful completion of our field trial is what is needed to put that system in place.  So in reality, this isn’t a campaign for one thousand knees that you’re supporting; it’s a campaign for the first one thousand knees.