INDESmed - Improving the Future

Rafael Vidal, an engineer from Madrid, was one of the few survivors of the 2008 Spanair air crash in Madrid. After multiple operations, and during his long convalescence, he detected that there was a social need to solve.

“I left the hospital with many fractures that finally healed, but I had one in the tibia that did not close. I couldn’t understand how someone who has to carry crutches for a while or for the rest of their life had to endure this nightmare. After several weeks of reflection, I deduced that it was important to try to improve the existing products on the market. All the products that contribute to improving our quality of life.”

The idea was to solve several problems for hundreds of thousands of users of crutches, canes, walkers, etc., all over the world. From those who have to use them for a limited time, or for those for whom these mobility aids are part of their daily life, using them for an indefinitely prolonged time.

“The experience helped me to think about improving people’s lives. Whether to walk, see or hear, I realised that in all these fields there is room for improvement to make a better world,” he says.

The Madrid-based company, founded in 2011, comprises a team of engineers specialising in bioengineering and medical devices with extensive experience in the field of medicine and aerospace industry. Vidal then found two partners for this project: physicist Miguel Cappiello and surgeon Aleksandar Lovic.