A HARD PATH TO WALK

Startup firm wants to bring prosthetic limbs into the 21st century

“I want to be walking, a little bit anyway, even if I only take baby steps,” 74-year-old Beatrice Hines said. “If I get the right fit.”

Getting the right fit with artificial legs and feet can be painful and frustrating for people like Ms. Hines, a retired hospital aide who lost much of her right leg to amputation five years ago after knee repair surgery and an infection.

A power wheelchair makes it possible for her to get around as she struggles to get the right fit for her artificial leg.

And she’s hardly alone: Prosthetics is a laggard of modern medicine — part science, part craft, a specialty in which intuition and the child’s modeling compound Play-Doh are still used to find the proper fit for an artificial leg.

“That’s where we’re at,” said Mary Ann Miknevich, Ms. Hines’ doctor, who has been helping patients with artificial limbs for 34 years. “That’s the state of prosthetics. Trying to find the proper device is sometimes a matter of guessing what might work best.”

There’s no Yelp for silicone rubber limbs. Rejection of patient insurance claims is common, and independent research on what works best for a given patient is lacking. What’s more, a poorly fitting artificial limb can start a downward spiral in the overall health of an amputee.

Joshua Caputo wants to bring prosthetics into the 21st century through his startup company, HuMoTechLLC.