title: Automated fabrication of mobility aids (AFMA): below-knee CASD/CAM testing and evaluation program results.
abstract: In 1988 the Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, under the directorship of Margaret J. Giannini, M.D., began a nationally directed computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) research program for the Automated Fabrication of Mobility Aids (AFMA). Under this program CAD/CAM research and development centers were established at the Prosthetics Research Study in Seattle, WA; at Northwestern University and the VA Lakeside Medical Center in Chicago, IL; and at the VA Medical Center and New York University Medical Center in New York, NY. These three centers conducted a collaborative program: (a) to introduce CAD/CAM technologies to prosthetists, physicians, therapists, and rehabilitation health care professionals in the United States; (b) to evaluate the feasibility of using CAD/CAM systems in clinical prosthetics settings; (c) to test and evaluate the University College London-Bioengineering Center's and the University of British Columbia-Medical Engineering Resource Unit's respective systems for the computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacture of prosthetic sockets (CASD/CAM) for below-knee amputees; and, (d) to obtain quantitative data for refinement of the CASD/CAM systems tested, and for the development of new, enhanced, more efficacious, and expedient systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Medical Center, NY 10016.
authors.forename: V L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Houston
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Burgess
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Childress
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Lehneis
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Garbarini
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: LaBlanc
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Boone
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Harlan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000674:Amputees / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011474:Prosthesis Design