A Hamilton health-technology founder says his team is preparing to test a robotic prosthetic hand with five participants by the end of the year, while the project continues through research and regulatory steps.

Ahmed Ibrahim, the founder of Better Bionics, told CHCH on Tuesday that three adults and two children are expected to use the device in a pilot with Hamilton Health Sciences. The timeline is Ibrahim’s stated plan, not confirmation that enrolment or patient testing has begun.

Twenty movements, with control adapted to the user

The prototype, called Dream Weaver, uses small motors to give its fingers and thumb 20 distinct movements. Sensors collect signals from muscles in the wearer’s forearm, while the company’s software is intended to learn how an individual signals different grips.

Those performance descriptions come from Ibrahim and the project’s institutional partners. Public reports do not provide results from a completed clinical trial comparing the hand with approved devices.

Ibrahim began working on prosthetic hands as a child in Syria after his friend Ali lost a hand in a bombing. Now 25, he is developing the latest versions through Better Bionics, with work taking place at his Niagara Falls home, a shared McMaster University lab and Hamilton Health Sciences’ Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre.

Grant supports development, not approval

Hamilton Health Sciences recently named Ibrahim a recipient of its DRIVE SPARK program, which awards grants of up to $50,000 to early-stage hospital innovations. The hospital has not publicly specified the amount of his award.

The hospital’s October 15 profile says its prosthetics and orthotics team has advised Ibrahim on the hand’s design and is helping develop a clinical-evaluation protocol. That protocol must still go to the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board before a patient study can proceed.

CHCH reported that Ibrahim is also applying for Health Canada approval. An application is not an approval, and neither source identifies a date when the device could be sold or routinely prescribed.

Sources: Hamilton Health Sciences’ October 15 project profile, also available through McMaster’s Forge; CHCH’s October 20 report, published at 8:11 p.m. Toronto time.

Editorial illustration of prosthetic-hand research; not the Dream Weaver device, a patient or a clinical test.