Reimagining prosthetics services, combining limb fitting and co-creation

Hands of X (www.handsofx.co.uk) is a reimagining of a prosthetics service that augments a clinical limb fitting centre with a fashion-led service in which wearers choose materials from which their hand is made. So the ‘X’ stands for both what a hand could be made of and also for whom it is made and whether they feel a deep sense of ownership of it. Since our first participatory workshops with wearers and prosthetists were presented at TIPS in 2016 as ‘Exploring everyday materials and prosthetic hands’, we have gone on to prototype a radical fashion-led customer service within an eyewear retailer in London’s Kings Cross. At TIPS 2019 we will present this prototype and show extracts from a professionally-made documentary film showing the installation and featuring conversations with wearers in which they reflect on their feelings (or lack) of ownership of their prostheses. Now we are looking ahead to how Hands of X could have impact within NHS rehabilitation services, both in terms of the drivers and hurdles that would be involved in its adoption and adaptation locally and nationally, and also the influence it might have in seeding discussion about future services, as part of the National Prosthetics Review and beyond. Co-design and co-creation––and with these perceptions of ‘co-ownership’, if we can call it this––are currently of interest across the NHS. Our intent at TIPS is to seed discussion with further prosthetists, wearers, manufacturers and healthcare professionals who might be interested in joining us in effecting change.