SAUDI ARABIA – HealTec has become the first-ever prostheses manufacturing plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, marking a major step in modernizing healthcare and transforming lives in the Kingdom.
The innovative facility will offer people in the Kingdom better access to prostheses and orthopedic equipment at a cheaper price and improved customization.
The opening of the facility represents a turning point in the Kingdom’s dedication to improving the quality of life for its residents, regardless of any physical obstacles they may encounter.
The company aims to use modern technology to push the limits of what was previously thought to be feasible in the area.
Its factory specializes in manufacturing assistive equipment and prosthetic devices using 3-D scanning and printing, and computer numerical control machining.
The Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of HealTec, Hashim Al-Zain said he wanted to bridge the gap in the Saudi market of prosthetics and orthotics by leveraging the use of new and advanced technologies.
Al-Zain said, “You need to work with people who have enough curiosity and great potential in engineering and medicine to solve chronic problems in the field of rehabilitation … that would help bridge the market gap to complement ongoing efforts that would streamline the direction toward achieving Saudi Vision 2030.”
The company’s main objective is to use technology to localize the manufacturing of prosthetics and orthotics and help people with disabilities become more productive members of society.
Al-Zain noted that healthcare practitioners in rehabilitation, prosthetics, and orthotics needed local manufacturers to help them source local parts that are custom-designed to their patient’s needs.
He added that HealTec was working towards transforming human limitations into human possibilities.
By adhering to national and international standards, HealTec seeks to produce orthotics and prosthetics of a quality equivalent to those now imported into the Kingdom while also reducing costs and speeding up production processes.
Al-Zain said: “This way, we can effectively compete based on price, delivery speed, and customizability.”
HealTec ingenious collaboration of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The firm relies on digital manufacturing which included, subtractive (CNC machining) and additive manufacturing (3-D printing), which includes both metallic and plastic parts.
HealTec has cutting-edge laser and optical scanners, along with coordinate measuring machine probes, a broad category of instruments that use diverse technologies for direct and comparative measurements.
The advanced tools enable the factory to seamlessly convert physical objects into digital representations.
Al-Zain also shared that the Kingdom’s prosthetics market was worth around US$933 million a year, and he predicted that over the next five years, the factory’s share would be approximately US$22.7 million, fulfilling nearly 35 to 40 percent of regional demand, including exports to neighboring countries.
In HealTec, production time for prosthetic parts is significantly reduced due to in-house developed digital designs conforming to international standards for all machined or 3D printed components.
The factory’s diverse range of 3-D printers offers not only plastic-based printing capabilities but also metal printing.
Materials that the company uses for the manufacturing process include ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), PLA (polylactic acid), titanium, stainless steel, and aluminum.
It is also trying to build enough demand to be able to outreach to SABIC and localize the production of plastics that are used in manufacturing orthotics to further reduce manufacturing costs.
“We possess a versatile digital manufacturing establishment that facilitates the transformation of any tangible item into a digital format, to enable its local production accurately and on time,” he added.
Because all of the machined or 3-D printed parts at HealTec are based on internally developed, digital designs that meet international standards, production times for individual prosthetic parts are drastically shortened when compared to conventional techniques.
More than 70 percent of HealTec’s staff are Saudis with backgrounds in mechanical engineering, machine design, digital transformation, supply chain, and prosthetics and orthotics.
HealTec’s roots trace back to 2012 when DarTec Engineering was established as the first reverse engineering company to localize the manufacturing of mechanical parts for the industrial sector.
DarTec’s services found relevance with prominent companies such as Saudi Aramco, Saudi Electricity Co., National Water Co., and Saudi Arabian Railway Co.
In December 2020, Nusaned Investment, SABIC’s investment arm, purchased a 30 percent share of DarTec to help grow its outreach, which resulted in the formation of HealTec. Al-Zain said: “You have seen nothing yet.”
Investing in orthopedic medicine in Saudi Arabia
According to a 2020 report by Invest Saudi, there is high potential for opportunities to develop prosthetics and assistive technology devices and provide prosthetics service in the Kingdom, which is the largest spender on healthcare across the MENA region.
The Health and Social Development budget exceeded more than US$45.86 billion in 2019.
According to the government’s 2022 figures, spending in the health and social development sector amounted to about US$26.65 billion, equivalent to 72 percent of the total money allocated for 2022.
An increasing incidence of sports injuries and road accidents, the rising number of diabetes-related amputations, and the growing prevalence of osteosarcoma around the world are poised to drive prosthetics in the Saudi and global markets.
The rising population of elderly people in the Kingdom has also led to increased demand for prosthetic products.
Around 974 prosthetics were produced at 16 different workshops across Saudi Arabia, compared to 3,745 amputations that were conducted in 2018.
The report stated that the Kingdom imports 100 percent of its requirements for high-tech prosthetics devices.
This would make companies like HealTec a dynamic new entry in the healthcare industry that would boost the localization of manufacture.
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