Innovative Treatments

This is an amazing story of a medical innovation funded by DARPA and prototyped at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

Together, they have created the first ever bionic arm, one which is controlled by sensory feedback (aka the prosthesis responds to thoughts!). With it, the patient can carry out all daily activities, with incredible fine motor skills and even a sense of touch. The first patient, Jesse Sullivan, is able to use his prosthesis to remove a credit card from his pocket and stack cups by feel.

This has never been achieved before.

Until now, prosthetic limbs have been rudimentary - moved by force of body, no fine motor capabilities, “hands” as hooks or immovable pincers. The Proto 1 is a miraculous leap forward.

As of the end of February 2007, 897 service men and women have had amputations since the start of the Iraq War in 2003. Of those amputations, 612 were a complete limb, hand or foot, according a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense. For them, and for others, this will make an immeasurable difference in quality of life. It’s the kind of innovation that is thrilling to see.

We live in an age where we are beginning to see science and technology catch up to our imaginations. There is so much potential and the needs, in some cases, can be so clear. It’s gratifying to see our technological capabilities come to fruition. (And yes, when this technology is commercialized and available, imagine the possibilities in the consumer and b2b realms - bionics could change manufacturing, shipping, create machinery that “senses”. And if the bionics could move to wireless, maybe then we could then control all our technology - cars, computers, anything - using sensory feedback. It’s the future world Ray Kurzweil describes in The Singularity is Near.)

For more information, check out www.ric.org.

And in a very separate note, Nadal defeated Federer in a 3rd set tie-break. So much for the wisdom of the crowds!