Moving Easily With No Pain In The Body

TLM Foot-Knee-Back-Arm Orthotics Center provides specialised services.

Li Ming switched from being an aerospace engineer to become an orthotist in 1997 to set up the TLM Foot-Knee-Back-Arm Orthotics Center, which is said to be the first of its kind in Singapore. Its core business is to provide medical treatment for foot pain, knee pain, back pain and arm pain in the musculoskeletal system. With treatment at the centre, patients can reduce their pain and many can be completed cured.

“Our vision for the centre is to be recognised as a model organisation for service excellence and maintain a reputation for improving people’s health and their quality of life,” says Ms Li Ming, President and Orthotist of TLM Foot-Knee-Back-Arm Orthotics Center. She has treated over 20,000 patients aged from two to 89 years old.

The Ministry of Health defines an orthotist as someone part of a multi-disciplinary health team that cares for patients requiring specialised mechanical devices (orthoses) to support or supplement weakened or abnormal joints and limbs.

Orthoses enables the body to move more easily, and can prevent or reduce pain. No medication, injections or surgery are required. Treatment can be in the form of a brace, a splint or orthotic insoles or shoes.

What’s special about the TLM Foot-Knee-Back-Arm Orthotics Center’s services is not only treating diseases but also preventing them. Combining fashion with treatment is the uniqueness of the centre. The objective is to cure a patient's pain by their wearing its orthotic insoles and shoes so that they are fully cured and never need to come back.

“From the first day of our research and development, we knew that our shoes are different and will be a challenge to the current footwear tradition and fashion. TLM's leather shoes are premium quality full leather shoes made according to the bio-mechanical principles of human movement. The classical style of our shoes and their strict craftsmanship is worthy of a long-term investment in a person’s personal style,” says Ms Li.

The design and technology used in making shoes and orthoses are unique. The centre specialises in using orthoses to provide medical treatments and uses an exclusive and unique insole and footwear concept to treat foot, knee and back pain that stem from musculoskeletal system conditions. More importantly, TLM also provides a patient guarantee under which the deposit can be refunded if patients find its services or products unsatisfactory during collection.

To grow its business, TLM is currently working on an e-commerce website. More than 20 years of study, research and clinical practice have proven that its service orientation, technology, and customer/patient satisfaction are all successful.

“In order to allow more people to enjoy our services, people from young to old will not be plagued by musculoskeletal system diseases at any stage of life and also avoid other body system diseases, we have decided to bring our products and services online,” says Ms Li Ming.

“At present, we serve mainly people over the age of 50 years old. We believe the e-commerce website will bring in a different customer group of young adults aged 30 to 50 years old.

Besides maintaining their own health, this group of people will also pay attention to their children's health. We believe we will be able to help more children through this e-commerce platform,” she adds.

Of the five staff at TLM, one has a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the National University of Singapore and has more than 30 years of industry experience. Another studied Information Systems Management with a second major in Operations Management at Singapore Management University and is currently doing both jobs in the company. The others are operators who were trained step by step by Ms Li Ming.

She herself trained under the professors of the Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University in Shanghai, and gradually became a well-known orthotist in the industry. Ms Li Ming serves as a part-time orthotist in five hospitals in China and as a part-time lecturer at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

In Singapore from 2015 to 2017, Ms Li Ming’s centre won the Singapore Consumer’s Choice award, the Singapore Enterprise Medal of Honour, Singapore Preferred Brand, Singapore Service Honouree, Singapore Industry Icon award and Promising SME 500 - Industry Star award 2017.