KARACHI: The Burns Centre of the Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi in collaboration with a company has launched a new patient care programme under which the facility plans to offer robotic prosthetic arm for the amputees.

“We need financial support of the philanthropists so that more and more patients could be offered a bionic prosthetic arm that can change their life,” said Abdullah Feroz, founding president and member executive committee of the Burns Unit, at a press conference on Saturday.

Bionic arms used special sensors to detect and convert naturally generated electrical signals from muscles into movement, he added.

“They are custom-built to fit the residual limb and the technology connects the mind to the prosthesis that help restores natural arm movement,” Mr Feroz explained, adding that a 10-year-old boy, Abdullah, had recently received this artificial intelligence-based prosthesis.

“He is now able to do many different types of work. We are looking forward to offering this facility to more patients who have lost their arm/s.”

To a question, Mr Feroz said that manufacturing of a custom-built bionic arm cost between Rs6 million and Rs7m abroad. But, the cost in local production had been reduced to Rs1m.

According to him, treatment of burns is a costly treatment across the world and patients often need counseling.

The speakers informed the gathering that the Burns Unit was the largest free-of-cost facility for burns’ treatment in Pakistan. It was established in 2004 with the support of Friends of Burns Patients Welfare Society and had been equipped with modern equipment.

Arjumand A. Qazi of the Burns Centre, Anas Niaz, the chief executive officer of BioNiks, the company which will be developing custom-built robotic arms, and senior plastic surgeon at the unit Dr Mohammad Ali Adnan were also in attendance.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2022