Dear NHS,

We’re very, very excited to share our latest innovations with you. Hero RGD and Hero PRO are new multi-grip hands from Open Bionics designed and built in Bristol, UK. They’re available now and all NHS centres in the UK can buy them, either through the multi-grip exemption list, or through our NHS contract which enables Open Bionics to supply to all NHS clinics as of 1st November 2024.

It took 8 years of lobbying to change the multi-grip hand provision policy (even with the support of two Prime Ministers and a few Secretaries of State for Health and Social Care) and then we had to wait two years to be able to apply for the contract to supply you (which we now have in place). In that time we’ve delivered over 1,000 Hero Arms and Hero Gauntlets to hand and partial hand amputees in France, Germany, Netherlands, and the US via their national healthcare programmes. And we’ve launched our own clinics to offer specialised services for upper limb patients. After 10 years of applying to the NHS to be able to deliver prosthetics designed and built in the UK, we’re very excited to have trained 10+ NHS clinical sites on this technology and look forward to supporting upper limb amputees in the UK to finally access this technology. The UK is leading in innovation in Upper Limb prosthesis design, we hope the single payor system in the UK will now help UK amputees to access the technology that has been built here at home with and for them. British amputees played a huge role in the codesign of each of these technologies that amputees around the globe are benefiting from.

Feedback from the clinical and patient community was instrumental in the creation and development of this new technology. 

Here are some of the key innovations prosthetists, patients, and OTs have been requesting, many of which have been included in our latest technology release:

• Socket fabrication control – prosthetists/technicians can now create their own sockets for use with the Hero PRO and Hero RGD hands ✅
• Streamlined socket to make it easier for patients to pull through long sleeves like jackets ✅
• EMG electrode sensitivity and reliability; MyoPods are intelligent and will self-adjust their own sensitivity throughout the day in response to muscle fatigue and moisture ✅
• EMG electrode water resistance; MyoPods are fully waterproof ✅
• EMG placement ease; you can place MyoPods anywhere on the body ✅
• EMG adjustment ease, adjust sensitivity in the Sidekick app at your appointment or on the fly at home ✅
• Wireless design sockets; MyoPods are wireless so clinicians don’t need to sacrifice socket design for cabling constraints ✅
• Easily switch between single and dual site control through the Sidekick app ✅
• Include 360 wrist rotation and 45 flexion ✅
• Include wrist locking ✅
• Increase the durability of the hand, can take up to half a tonne of force ✅
• Increase the durability of the covers, can withstand repeated drops and impacts ✅
• Durable grip surfaces – finger-tips tested to over 300k wear cycles, equivalent to 5yrs of high usage ✅
• Finger tip removal/swap with ease, Urethane fingertips are v easy to replace and swappable ✅
• Increase speed of finger closing time. Hero RGD is twice as fast as a BeBionic, iLimb, or Covvi hand, 0.4s for full open to close ✅
• Freeze mode so patients can hold a grip without triggering sensors ✅
• Larger hand sizing ✅
• Increase grip strength, Hero RGD is twice as strong as a BeBionic, iLimb, or Covvi hand ✅
• Add a key grip with powered thumb rotation and closing ✅
• Increase carry load, 2 – 3 x carry strength of a Hero Arm, Hero RGD can lift 35kg ✅
• Add capacitive touch so patients can use with smartphone ✅
• Make hand, wrist, and arm waterproof ✅ ✅ ✅
• Reduce weight, the Hero PRO is the lightest multigrip solution available ✅
• Increase cover options (50+ colours and designs available) ✅
• Add over the air updates so patients can receive new grips without having to attend the clinic ✅
• Great value for the NHS via competitive pricing with great warranty ✅ 
• Make all components available to purchase separately. ✅ 
• All maintenance and repairs done locally in Bristol, UK. Loaner hands available for patients.  ✅ 

We think you’re going to love the possibilities our new wireless design opens for patients. Because our hand and socket is completely wireless a patient can move between our multi-grip hand and a mechanical attachment in seconds. No more need for a second or third arm to use body-powered terminal devices, or a specific waterproof system for use in the water. Our new design serves all purposes, just switch the hand out for a different terminal device or activity attachment.

We’re so confident that the Hero PRO and Hero RGD systems are the very best for the patient that we’ve collected all test data ever published by every manufacturer, so you don’t need to trust us. Please sign up here to download the only industry comparison table that holds all specs of every multi-grip bionic hand ever made. This makes it easier for you to compare the benefits and limits of each option to find which one will best suit your patient’s needs.

Clinicians and patients gave us quite the shopping list over the years. We believe we have delivered a system that your clinicians will love to work with and will deliver amazing outcomes for your patients.

We know a number of Hero Arm users are trying to book appointments with their closest NHS prosthetist to request a Hero PRO. Please reach out to us if you need additional support, we employ 9 certified prosthetists focussed solely on Upper Limb prosthetics and are happy to help you. 

We have delivered over 1,000 upper limb prosthetics and we can’t wait to see UK amputees benefit from this life-changing technology.