SoftServe and Superhumans launch US-Ukrainian prosthetics mission

The project started on August 21. The American doctors spent 10 days of the mission in Lviv at the Superhumans center, where they shared their expertise with the Ukrainian team and worked on prosthetics for patients.

"We have decided to work with the Medical Center for Orthotics and Prosthetics, as they have the best experience in working with the military. But it took us a long time to come to this partnership - about a year. And it became possible thanks to the support of SoftServe, which recognized our need to train prosthetists and improve their skills. Thus, we launched this project, where we can simultaneously train our prosthetists and provide prosthetics to patients. The goal of the mission's first stage was to work with ten patients, but in the end, we were able to help 23. We had planned to hold the mission's second stage in the United States but decided that it would be devoted to the upper limbs, and we would also be holding it in Ukraine," - comments Olga Rudneva, CEO of Superhumans Center.

The cost of the mission, funded by SoftServe, is $1,000,000 (one million US dollars).

"From the moment we met the Superhumans Center's team, we were very impressed with their values and approach, so the decision to allocate $1 million was made almost instantly. After several meetings, we decided to contribute to this project. And we can already see at the end of the first stage that it was the right decision. In such a short time, the team doubled the number of patients who will leave the center with a completely new quality of life, which is fantastic. In the future, the joint team of doctors will develop the medical protocols that will help Ukrainian doctors, and more patients will be able to receive help," - says Anastasia Frolova, regional manager of SoftServe in Ukraine.

Among the Ukrainian doctors participating in the training with their American colleagues are specialists from all over Ukraine. The next stage of the mission will take place in October, also in Lviv. It will focus on upper limb prosthetics.

"This is the beginning of an extraordinary adventure where we will work and help with the most difficult cases and will be able to provide patients with a better quality of life. We are happy to cooperate with Ukrainian doctors; they have learned something from us, but we have also learned a lot from them. Our goal is to work here with the Superhumans team and teams across Ukraine to improve their knowledge so that they can avoid the mistakes we made before. How we worked with prostheses in the military 17 years ago and how it looks now is a big difference. We hope that this cooperation will be long-lasting, and I would like to thank Olga and Andriy from the Superhumans Center and SoftServe for giving us this opportunity to continue to teach and learn," - Ian Fothergill, prosthetist, COO, Medical Center for Orthotics and Prosthetics, USA.

The mission will generally last till the end of the year, with several more stages of joint US-Ukrainian practical training. More than 30 patients will receive treatment as part of the mission.

Superhumans is a modern clinic for prosthetics, rehabilitation and reconstructive surgery for military and civilians affected by the war in Ukraine. All services at the clinic are free of charge for patients. The center is funded by donors and partners. The first Superhumans Center was opened 5 months ago in Vynnyky, near Lviv. In the coming years, Superhumans will open 5 more centers in different cities of Ukraine: Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, Rivne, and Dnipro. The project was initiated by Ukrainian businessman Andriy Stavnitser.

Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics (MCOP) is an American medical center located in Maryland that specializes in prosthetics for patients with amputations of varying complexity. The center is known for its work with the U.S. military, as it cooperates with the U.S. Department of Defense. The center's doctors have prosthetically treated more than 1,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and annually prosthetically treat more than 350 patients on average.