Van Phillips (inventor)

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Van Phillips (born 1954) is an American [1] inventor of prosthetics.

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Biography

He is known for the Flex-Foot brand of artificial foot and limbs that he created, [2] and for his charity work for amputees. [3] An amputee himself, having lost a leg below the knee at age 21, Phillips was motivated by the limitations of then-existing artificial limbs to attend the Northwestern University Medical School Prosthetic-Orthotic Center. After graduation, he worked as a biomedical design engineer at the University of Utah [2] before starting his own company, Flex-Foot Incorporated in 1984.

Phillips ultimately created a workable artificial foot made from carbon graphite. Unlike all previous prostheses,[ citation needed ] it stored kinetic energy from the wearer's steps as potential energy, like a spring, allowing the wearer to run and jump. A prosthetic foot that he created, the Flex-Foot Cheetah, is used by double-amputee and Paralympics gold-medalist Oscar Pistorius, and about 90 percent of Paralympics participants use a variation of the original Flex-Foot design, as well as thousands of people around the world. [2] Phillips sold Flex-Foot to Össur in 2000, which continues to manufacture the artificial foot. [3] [4]

In 1999 he established Second Wind, a non-profit organization to provide inexpensive and resistant prostheses to amputees around the world, and is now working to create a prosthetic leg for land mine victims in developing countries. [3] In 1998 he received the Brian Blatchford Memorial Prize from the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics. [3]

See also

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References

  1. "Runaway Success". European Patent Office . Retrieved 2015-02-12.
  2. 1 2 3 "Inventor of the Week, January 2007: Van Phillips". Lemelson-MIT program. Archived from the original on 2007-07-14. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Martha Davidson. "Artificial Parts: Van Phillips". Smithsonian Institution . Retrieved 2008-07-02.
  4. Pogash, Carol (2008-07-02). "A Personal Call to a Prosthetic Invention". New York Times . Retrieved 2008-07-02.