Step by step: The Israeli who is helping toddlers walk
At present, four percent of infants are born with some symptoms of Metatarsus Adductus (MTA), a common foot deformity noted at birth that causes the front half of the foot to turn inward.
Dr. Daizade presents the company product
According to Dr. Izak Daizade, until just a few years ago, pediatricians and orthopedists had only evasive answers for parents whose children were diagnosed.
“They would ignore the issue and say the problem would resolve itself, or shift responsibility to the parents, or, in extreme cases, put the newborns in plaster casts,” he explains.
‘I decided to make my father’s dream come true’
Dr. Daizade founded Universal Neonatal Foot Orthotics (UNFO) in 2010 and serves as its chairman. His two sons both work there, Eilon as CEO and Liron as Vice President for Quality Assurance and Control.
The father was born in Tehran, where he attended medical school, but he was forced to leave in 1979 when the Islamic Revolution broke out. Daizade and his family moved to Israel, where he completed a residency in neurosurgery, vascular and general surgery, emergency medicine, and orthopedic surgery at Beilinson Hospital.
Over the years, he also treated newborns and realized there was no simple solution for MTA. All existing therapies were either irrelevant, troublesome, or invasive.
When Eilon was released from the IDF, father and son decided to realize a dream of Dr. Daizade’s together. Liron came on board later on as a quality assurance and control engineer and helped the fledgling company meet the stringent global standards for orthopedic devices.
For seven years, Dr. Daizade developed his product in the lab. The product provides newborns’ feet with the appropriate correction without having to be covered in a cast—at best—or undergo surgery—at worst.
UNFO’s product resolves the underlying problem in the quickest and most effective way possible. “It is lightweight, does not keep the foot from growing, and does not require repeat visits to change the angle of the feet,” Daizade says of the product’s benefits.
The technology of the product is based on three-dimensional, bi-competent, high-pressure injections creating two materials with different features (stiff and soft) on the same production line to resolve the problem and prevent pressure sores in treatment.
The company’s product and its correction of congenital MTA
Daizade explains that “In Israel, there is a diagnostic problem. Treatment depends on identifying the problem in time. We are therefore investing most of our efforts to raising awareness in the world.
“At present, it is possible to treat MTA only up to the age of six or seven months, before the infant starts to walk. If the problem is not treated by then, surgical intervention is necessary to correct the structure of the infant’s foot.”
Read More: Ynet