Organizations bringing their ideas and funding on prosthetics to Oklahoma may help the state’s research market become even bigger.

OrthoCare Innovations, one of the country’s leading research organizations in the field of orthotics and prosthetics, merged with already prospering research and development company Martin Bionics last year in Oklahoma City.

The company, which has focused on improving technology used for replacement limbs, has brought other researchers to Oklahoma City in an effort to establish a rehabilitation technology center. The center will be located next to the OrthoCare Innovations headquarters in Oklahoma City.

The U.S. lacked a center that focused on the transition and commercialization of prosthetic technologies, and the company’s rehabilitation center will put OrthoCare Innovations and Oklahoma at the top in prosthetic research, said Doug McCormack, chief executive of OrthoCare Innovations.

“One of the things we talked about a year ago when we did the acquisition of Martin Bionics was the opportunity to bring together various players in the field of prosthetics research to create a focal point in this area of the United States,” he said.

The OU Health Sciences Center is a supporter of the project, and prosthetic engineers at OUHSC are working with OrthoCare Innovations in their efforts to make patients more comfortable with replacement limbs, OUHSC spokesman Jonathan Day said.

The $70 million venture is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, Johns Hopkins University, the Oklahoma EDGE Fund and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The Department of Defense has funded many prosthetic research projects to provide military amputees with prosthetics, OrthoCare Innovations spokeswoman Carol Sorrel said.

OrthoCare Innovations focuses on improving the technology used for artificial limbs and allowing prosthetists to use real-time gait analysis data to optimize prosthesis alignment for each individual, according to the company.

“Our focus is to produce prosthetic limbs that adjust to the lifestyle of the individual and not the individual adjusting to it,” OrthoCare Innovations spokesman Andrew Pollock said.

He also said the company has had two students from OU intern with them, and they are always looking for new, promising interns who are interested in prosthetic research.