ABOUT MEDTECH O&P RESEARCH LAB
MedTech O&P Research Lab is a clinical research and knowledge translation initiative and platform focused on bridging Prosthetics & Orthotics research and clinical practice gaps between high income societies and lower-middle- to low income societies. It operates as an independent knowledge translation platform that engages academic, research and clinical collaborations, while retaining full editorial and operational autonomy.
OUR VISION
A world where every student, practitioner and patient in the prosthetics and orthotics community across the global south and resource-limited settings has access to world-class evidence, insights, adaptable knowledge and innovation purposefully and contextually tailored for the realities of their setting.
OUR MISSION
— Translating, adapting and contextualizing high quality global research into actionable adoptable knowledge for practical application in resource-limited settings.
— Cultivating critical thinking, intellectual courage and independence, and amplifying creative problem solving skills amongst students and practitioners in resource limited settings.
— Making computational technologies required in the field of prosthetics and orthotics like Matlab, Autocad, AI and Automation, Robotics more accessible to students and practitioners in the global south.
— Amplifying patient and emerging professional voices from the global south.
— Inspiring prosthetics and orthotics students, practitioners and researchers in high economic settings think beyond their conventional approaches, to equip them for resource limited situations.
— Building a global community of students and practitioners in the field of prosthetics and orthotics across varying economic regions of the world.
— Structured Perspective Curation: MedTech O&P Research Lab curates perspectives from professionals, practitioners, researchers, patients and students in the field of prosthetics and orthotics for most of its article types.
— Publication Authorship: Publications may be independently authored by the MedTech O&P editorial team or co-authored with collaborating institutions or individuals, as explicitly stated in each publication.
— Cross-Context Editorial Vetting: All publications of MedTech O&P Research Lab undergo a dual-lens vetting and review across high- and low- income practice environments: reviewers in high resource settings ensure scientific rigor; low resource reviewers confirm practical feasibility and contextual fit before approval for publication by the MedTech O&P editorial team.
— Context-First Clinical Adaptation: Every publication and initiative is tested against real world realities in low-resource environments (power outages, limited materials, cultural nuances, funding realities).
— Open Access Publication: All publications are freely available and easily accessible; readers and contributors help shape editorial direction.
— Community Coordination: The community adopts a socratic dialogual approach in learning, to narrow the barrier between professionals and students.
— Hybrid Human AI-intelligence: In our community discussions and capacity building we leverage artificial intelligence, while training members to interrogate it rigorously through an unconventional pedagogical approach, to sustain and amplify their intellectual independence, and to figure out new gaps of knowledge (see core operational principle).
Unconventional inquiry over conventional
MedTech O&P Research Lab adopts an unconventional approach; counter to the traditional classroom method, which is integral in nurturing critical minded individuals who can strive in resource limited settings, by inspiring them to find alternatives needed in translating and adapting world-class research and innovations to their setting. We prioritise two main contrivances in achieving this: Socratic methods (a Socratic community dialogual system, and Socratic questioning; reflected in our publications) and a hybrid human AI-intelligence approach, where members are encouraged to systematically leverage on artificial intelligence bots through a skeptical, critical inquiry lens, to enhance their intellectual courage and to open up new knowledge gaps. In this approach members are encouraged to structurally question answers and solutions proffered by AI bots, and are assessed based on the logic, originality, depth of inquiry and substantiveness of their challenge; preventing them from becoming rote learners.
- Research Reviews
- Paper Summaries and contextual commentaries
- Contextual Briefs
- Dilemma Scenarios
- Student Perspectives
- Patient Perspectives
(See “what we do” in the homepage)
CAPACITY BUILDING & MENTORSHIP: The lab is patriotically invested in the capacity building and mentorship of students enrolled in Prosthetics and Orthotics programs in lower-middle- and low-income societies, through its community intellectual dialogual discourses, internship referrals and strong emphasis on integrating digital & computational technologies into their Prosthetics and Orthotics education. It does this by exploring online workshops, seminars, and short modules on digital courses like CAD, MATLAB, AI & Automation and Robotics.
COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVES: The lab is also involved in structured and theme-based collaborative review initiatives with
research groups and institutions.
— Intellectual curiosity, courage, independemce and inquisitiveness: We nurture members to become intellectually curious and inquisitive in finding ways to successfully translate knowledge, together with enhancing their intellectual courage and independence.
— Human Empowerment: We empower students, practitioners and patients in resource limited settings through our mentorship programs and accessible knowledge.
— Academic Networking: We are invested in building bridges across geographies and disciplines to foster global dialogue and collaborative progress in prosthetics and orthotics.
— Practical Excellence: We deliver rigorous, evidence-based solutions tailored for real world constraints in resource limited settings.
— Equity: We are invested in bringing equity in knowledge by making global knowledge and solutions available to people in resource limited environments.
MedTech O&P Research Lab started as an initiative to solve the problem of conventional pedagogy; which inhibits students’ natural curiosity to learning, problem solving and adaptability in the practical world, especially in resource- limited settings where one has to go beyond the conventional in finding solutions to practical problems. Conventional pedagogy does this by creating a system of rote learners, where grades are paramount to the actual learning process. The founder who had been in the four walls of a traditional class system was very unsatisfied with the method, especially with the less active role students play in class. This he does not deem satisfactory as a key to the advancement of education, and amongst them, Prosthetics and Orthotics, especially in lower-middle and low income societies, where resources are very much limited, and so students are supposed to have an elevated curiosity and critical mindedness to compete with their peers in developed societies.
The founder was also inspired by his skepticism of the future of systematic education in the era of artificial intelligence, where most students prefer to lead a passive educational lifestyle by leaving most of the critical aspects of education to be done by artificial intelligence. This dissatisfaction led to the creation of the hybrid human AI-intelligence approach; which is targeted at restoring and enhancing students’ intellectual courage and independence in order to sustain the relevance of systematic education in a changing world. Just as this dissatisfaction led to the creation of the hybrid human AI-intelligence approach, the dissatisfaction with the less active role students play in class led to the adoption of the Socratic methods.
MedTech O&P Research Lab which started in 2024 with less than twenty members in a WhatsApp channel, as a newsletter letter platform, amongst its core initiatives, is today positioning itself as a global hub for knowledge translation in Prosthetics and Orthotics, to bridge the research and clinical practice gaps between high income societies and lower-middle to low income societies, using its core founding principles.
Okeke Nnamdi
Founder and Director,
MedTech O&P Research Lab.