By
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has made many strides over the decades — expanding hospital networks, developing new surgical capabilities, and advancing in areas like cancer care and stroke management.
Yet, one critical discipline continues to be overlooked: prosthetics and orthotics.
As a prosthetist and orthotist with over 12 years of experience, I have had the privilege of working with amputees, orthopaedic patients, and rehabilitation teams across Malaysia.
But the question that still lingers — and should concern us all — is this: Why has there never been any structured inclusion or planning for prosthetists and orthotists in government hospitals?
The Missing Link In Patient Recovery
Each year, hundreds — if not thousands — of Malaysians undergo amputations or suffer conditions that impair their mobility and independence. Whether due to trauma, diabetes, cancer, or congenital conditions, these individuals require more than surgical care. They need functional rehabilitation — and that includes prostheses, orthotic supports, and long-term guidance.
Prosthetists and orthotists are trained professionals who design, fabricate, and fit assistive devices such as artificial limbs and supportive braces. We work with patients throughout their recovery journey to:
- Regain mobility,
- Prevent further complications (e.g., pressure sores, deformities), and
- Improve quality of life and community reintegration.
And yet — to this day — not a single government hospital in Malaysia has a full-time prosthetist and orthotist, nor is there any long-term workforce plan to systematically include this profession within the public sector.
Planning Must Start With The Patient In Mind
This is not about job creation. It’s about service continuity. The current approach — relying solely on external referrals, intermittent NGO services, or patient-funded private providers — is neither sustainable nor equitable.
Proper planning would mean:
- Recognising prosthetics and orthotics as a core component of rehabilitation and mobility services.
- Establishing clinical pathways that involve prosthetists and orthotists from the point of surgery or diagnosis.
- Developing national service guidelines and device funding mechanisms to ensure timely, appropriate, and standardised care.
- Creating regional rehabilitation hubs where prosthetic and orthotic services are embedded alongside physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and orthopaedics.
Without a clear framework, patients are often left in limbo — post-surgery but without support to walk again, return to work, or live with dignity.
Who Carries The Burden?
The ones who suffer are the patients:
- A young man recovering from trauma who waits months for a referral to a private prosthetist.
- An elderly woman who never receives an orthotic brace because she cannot afford one.
- A child with congenital limb difference who falls between cracks in the system, missing crucial intervention windows.
These are avoidable outcomes — if only we address the gap in planning.
A Call For Vision And Inclusion
In 2022, we took a step forward. Through collaboration with Jabatan Standard Malaysia, we successfully developed a national standard framework for the prosthetics and orthotics industry — a foundational policy effort to begin formalising our field and raising quality benchmarks.
But more needs to be done.
National standards alone are not enough without a corresponding implementation strategy within the public health care system. Malaysia must now take the next step: to operationalise this policy through MOH planning, budgeting, and hospital-level integration.
Moreover, it’s worth noting that many prosthetists and orthotists in Malaysia are trained with a background in biomedical engineering. This gives us a unique dual capability — not only to deliver high-quality patient care, but also to innovate, design, and improve prosthetic and orthotic technologies locally.
In a time when Malaysia is striving for health care innovation and industrial independence, this homegrown expertise should be seen as a national asset — not an overlooked profession.
We need clear service delivery models, funding mechanisms, and professional career pathways — not for the benefit of practitioners, but for the continuity and dignity of patient care.
My Hope
As vice president of the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) Malaysia and a professional who has seen the consequences of fragmented rehabilitation planning, I urge the MOH to take the lead in developing a long-term strategy for prosthetic and orthotic services in Malaysia.
Patients deserve more than just survival — they deserve recovery, reintegration, and independence. That can only happen when prosthetists and orthotists are brought meaningfully into the system — not as an afterthought, but as part of the national plan.
Mohammad Saiful Borhan is a certified prosthetist and orthotist, vice president of the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) Malaysia, and a medical-legal consultant with over a decade of experience in rehabilitation care across Malaysia. In 2022, he led the collaboration with Jabatan Standard Malaysia to develop the first national standard for the prosthetics and orthotics industry.
