A doctor, engineer, certified teacher, and now entrepreneur, Henri Blanc has been developing the start-up OrthoProsecure for several years, incubated on the Bordeaux campus.
The conclusion is clear: emerging and developing countries are underserved in terms of the range of products available on the prosthetic knee market. The same is true for countries with minimal resources for patient care, such as many African countries. Existing products are either too expensive or too basic, with few features and poor performance.
This analysis led to the creation of OrthoProsecure, a Class 1 medical device. The goal is to develop a prosthetic knee that feels very natural to use: " It must be safe, easy to adjust and maintain, and repairable without delay," explains Henri Blanc. The design uses a modified freewheel, controlled directly by the physics of walking: " By choosing a mechanical solution, the knee is simpler and offers greater resilience and robustness," he adds.
Beyond the manufacturing and marketing aspects, Henri Blanc's project has a charitable dimension: " It's a state of mind! I'm not going to make a fortune with this knee, that's not what drives me. I want to produce a prosthesis that makes sense, that can also help in poor countries. " Ultimately, the goal is to sell the knee at cost in developing countries and also market it in developed countries.
Technical and human support on campus
Henri Blanc's incubation on the Bordeaux campus allows him to receive daily support and benefit from facilities to advance his project: " There are high-performance technical platforms for developing my prototypes. What's more, our school has a good image, which can give the project visibility. " Being based on campus has also enabled him to surround himself with people and build a reliable team: " Throughout all phases of the project, even the critical ones, I felt supported, and problems were resolved smoothly."
The good news in 2017 was that a group of students at the Bordeaux campus fell in love with his project. The students wanted to help him develop his start-up by trying their hand at CraAMfunding with their association, A Step In Africa. Their goal? To raise funds, produce the prosthetic knees, and distribute them in Africa in the summer of 2017.
A career spanning automotive engineering, teaching, and biomechanics
A student at Arts et Métiers 1973 and 1977, Henri Blanc was studying "structural engineering": " At the time, it was the ideal school for anything related to mechanics. I was a huge fan! " says Henri Blanc. He quickly became an expert in rotating system dynamics: " At the beginning of my career, I worked on the design of the Ariane rocket's turbo pump, and also for the Peugeot 90 team for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Then I also worked on the design of the gearbox for the GP2 (Grand Prix 2) car."
Then, a career in teaching naturally emerged: 25 years as a professor at Arts et Métiers At the same time, in 1983, Henri Blanc developed a consulting firm that still exists today.
" I enjoy tackling theoretical problems as well as practical ones: I often say that I am both a believer and a practitioner."It all started seven years ago, when a physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor commissioned Henri Blanc's students to work on the project for several years. Today, Henri is driving the OrthoProSecure project—a safe, mechanical, monocentric prosthetic knee—forward with great enthusiasm.
