Endoprosthetics

Endoprosthetics or prosthetics which reside inside the skin that replace a damaged or diseased bone have been in use for some time now. However, especially with children who developed conditions such as osteosarcoma and needed a bone removed in replaced by a prosthetic bone had the problem of needing the prosthetic to be constantly replaced as the child grew. Eventually prosthetics were developed that could be lengthened instead of completely replaced, but these prosthetics still required surgery to be lengthened. In children six surgeries normally occur throughout their lives to adjust the prosthetic. A new prosthetic has been created which can be adjusted much easier and without surgery as the person grows. This prosthetic uses a spring with a locking mechanism. When a magnetic field is generated outside the body near the limb, the locking mechanism releases allowing the prosthetic to expand. When the field is removed the prosthetic stops moving and re-locks. This process only takes about 20 seconds and doesn't require any kind of surgery after the prosthetic has been placed into the person's body. The prosthetic still might have to be replaced from time to time because, just like any prosthetic, it can develop infections. However, this new form of endoprosthetics allows the user to avoid painful and potentially scarring surgeries as they grow. This might not be the most technological innovation I have blogged about, but it is still an important innovation for many people who need endoprosthetics.

Bluetooth and Its Amazing Capabilities

Many of us know what Bluetooth technology is and might even use it everyday. However, for those who do not know, Bluetooth technology allows short-range communication or connection between electronic devices. Examples of this include computers or mp3 players to speakers or, the most common use, cell phones to ear phones. This technology has now been used to help an army amputee to walk by syncing two prosthetic limbs together using Bluetooth. Prosthetics have been around for a long time, and Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill would be able to walk with basic prosthetics. However, normal prosthetics are very tiring and strenuous on the users. To make movement with basic prosthetics better, computer chips were implemented into the limbs and programmed via computer. These limbs still used the remaining muscle of the user to generate movement which is still tiring. However, by using Bluetooth technology and built-in motors in two prosthetic legs, Lance Cpl. Bleill is able to move for long periods of time without becoming fatigued. The Bluetooth technology is used to sync the limbs together and control when and how fast a limb should move by determining what the other limb is doing. This allows the limbs to successfully allow Bleill to stand, walk, run, or climb steps without having to worry about his legs being out of sync creating awkward, slow, or inefficient movement. Currently Bleill is walking using two canes, but he hopes to one day walk without any assistance.

Education and the Struggle Within

For most of us school can be difficult, but for those with impairments such as blindness, school becomes much more than just a mental challenge. The biggest problem is not just reading which could be solved by braille or online textbooks which read aloud but by charts, graphs, and diagrams. Courses such as math and physics use graphs all the time, and biology courses use diagrams of the human body to show where things are and where processes take place in the body. Simple read aloud software isn't adequate for these situations. Because of these scenarios a smart pen and paper technology has been developed. The pen contains an audio recorder and computer processing device. The pen could be used to record a professor's lecture while taking notes. Later the lecture can be played back, so the notes can be better completed. Also the pen will be able to work with Sewer Raised Line Drawing Kit. The drawing kit creates raised images when drawn on. This images can also have audio added to them, so that when the smart pen is moved over the image information will be generated through audio about the particular parts of the image. The pen can be linked via USB to a computer to store the audio in a more permanent place, since the pen itself only holds 100 hours of audio. This technology has apparent uses for the blind, but this technology could be used for anyone. If textbooks were filled with "smart paper" or at least the images were, then we could all use a "smart pen" to learn more about the image by simply placing the pen over the image. "Smart paper" could also allow more information to be stored in less space for textbooks if the paper could be made cheap enough and wasn't bulky.

Ventriloquism, No Longer Just for Dummies

A new technology developed by Ambient Corporation has the interesting ability to allow you to talk without talking. This might sound strange, but it's a very intuitive and creative idea. Their technology, called Audeo, can read the nerve signals a person sends from their brain to their vocal cords and translate these signals into the words the person would be saying had they actually spoke. One the biggest concerns many people might have is if their inner thoughts were detected and transmitted, a potentially detrimental scenario. However, Ambient Corp. says that the device requires the user to go "a level above thinking" to actually initiate the device. There are many applications for this technology such as making a private phone call during a meeting or while in a public place. Audeo has also been used by a person in a wheel chair to control the wheel chair by thinking different words, and then Audeo transmits those words to a device that causes the wheel chair to move. Audeo can currently only recognize about 150 words and phrases, but Ambient Corp. says it will have a model with a full vocabulary by the end of the year.

The aesthetics for this device aren't very good; since, the device is attached to the neck directly below the chin. However, the aim of Audeo is not necessarily for those who would care too much about its aesthetics. Audeo's initial aim is towards people who lost their ability to speak from neurological diseases such as ALS (also called Lou Gehrig's disease) which attacks nerve cells and inhibits voluntary muscle control. These people are not able to control their vocal cords; however, nerve signals which can be traced by Audeo are still sent allowing people with certain diseases to speak.

A More Indepth Look At Funding For Medical Technology

So far I have given examples of awesome technologies that can be extremely beneficial to the world and especially people who have certain disabilities; however, I haven't spoke much of the actual funding for medical technology. Simply put, funding does exist for medical tech and the funding has actually increased over the past few years. In 1999, the federal government appropriated 11.9 billion dollars towards Medical Research and Development. 8.3 billion dollars of this money went to universities for R&D. The money more than doubled by 2004 when 28 billion dollars was given to medical R&D by the government. This is a lot of money; however, medical research and development requires hundreds of billions of dollars. People question the use of this large sum of money because very few products seem to be completed compared to the amount of money spent on R&D. This is because the actual process of creating a new technology can take up to 10 to 15 years before a product is completed. Not only can the process take awhile and cost a lot, but for funding to continue on a certain technology that technology must be able to make a profit once it is created or it will lose support from many private organizations. The government may place billions of dollars into the medical R&D industry, but investment by private companies has grown past what the government spends. As already stated, private companies must see that a product they are investing in will turn a profit once it is developed, or the company will lose interest in the product. So just like any other R&D group, medical R&D sometimes has to change their ideas slightly if they want funding and adjust to a more economical or sellable product.

Beyond the scope of simply trying to find funds is the question of do people actually support money being appropriated into medical R&D over other things such as health care. One study showed that roughly 75% of U.S. seniors supported R&D. I am not too surprised by this, but at the same time roughly 40 million plus Americans are not medically insured. After reading those numbers, I could see why some people say medical R&D is not as important as healthcare support. However, I think R&D is at least as important as healthcare because R&D can save thousands of lives in the future. One way in which it can do this which is not thought of often by people is making the processes we already have even faster. Some tests for diseases can take hours or even days. This is precious time some people don't have. I don't have any numbers, but I would assume at least a few lives could be saved every year if the tests and technology that we have could run faster. I believe health care is very important and definitely need, but if we don't fund medical research then we cannot expect the field of medicine to improve, and instead we will be stuck with trying to make do with what we have.

I have found many different sites which tell of independent founding organizations or funds that were given by local governments. Some organizations such as the Ascent Medical Technology Fund which was setup to support medical research, are completely supported privately. Even programs in my home state of North Carolina are awarding money for projects which plan to setup research institutions. From this and other funding sources I have found, I would conclude that funding definitely exists for medical R&D if a company tries hard enough to get the funds. Whether or not the funds are enough is hard to say. Certainly more funds would be more beneficial and expedite the research process. My point is that I want this funding to continue, and I strongly believe the funding should continue or even increase. If one device such as a pacemaker could save hundreds or thousands of lives, then I believe the device is worth the time and money spent to research and develop it.

Here is a link to some ways in which companies try to get funds:https://www.godaddyconnections.com/ResourceView.aspx?resourceid=1273&ci=0

Here are a few links about different funds that have been given or about different funds that companies can try to receive:

http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/gcmi-center.htm

http://www.texasnano.net/pdfs/Emerging%20Technology%20Fund%20White%20Paper.pdf

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/32413.php

http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/4952/

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS131678+09-Jun-2009+PRN20090609

http://www.ohio.edu/research/communications/techgapfund09.cfm

Mind Over Matter

The old saying "why work harder when you can work smarter" might have be truer than you think. In the U.S., Europe, and Asia researchers have been working on a system called Brain Computing Interface or BCI. This new technology will allow a user to wear a headset with small Electroencephalograms (EEGs) attached that will touch your scalp and analyze your brain activity. This electrical impulses will then be interpreted into different actions that would take place on a computer or potentially other devices such as robotic limbs. Just like voice recognition technology, the BCI would need to be trained for each individual person. On the forefront of this technology is the company Emotiv Systems Inc. Their technology called EPOC is capable of performing eight specific actions. These actions are trained by moving a cube. The actions are pushing and pulling the cube, moving it up/down and left/right, and rotating the cube clockwise or counter-clockwise. EPOC is based on three types of recognition, Expressiv, Affectiv, and Cognitiv (spelled how Emotiv spells them). Expressiv recognizes your facial expressions and movements that can be displayed through an online avatar, so if you smile the avatar smiles, if you blink the avatar blinks, and so on. Affectiv is about understanding your emotions and transferring those through to your games and music such as the color of the sky changing in a game your playing based on whether your happy, sad, or frustrated. Cognitiv is about controlling objects on a screen by just thinking about how you want to control the object. Cognitiv is what recognizes the eight actions previously mentioned. EPOC will have open sourced API to allow developers to create new programs and application for it, and everything will be linked through a website. Also, based on the Affectiv readings your music and pictures will rearrange and organize themselves based on your feeling. So if you are feeling happy, your pictures will reflect this in the order that you view them, or your music will play happy songs. EPOC will also come with a typing program that will allow a user to type by thinking about it and will allow users to play games by simply thinking of the key presses required to play the game. Consumer versions of this software are supposed to be out before Christmas and will sell for around $300.

Now as much as it sounds like I gave a sales pitch for one of, if not the coolest technology man has ever created, BCI has some profound uses for disabled people. Prosthetic limbs have been out for many years. Even limbs which had some movement by the user moving certain muscles have been out for some time. Now, however, this limbs could one day have full range of movement and ability since the user might be able to control his or her limb as if it were never lost or damaged. BCI has already been used to control some robotic limbs, and some researchers have had success with technology similar to BCI to allow people to control a robotic limb. Now even more hope exists for full prosthetic control. BCI could allow quadriplegics the ability to work a computer or one day any device linked to the BCI. Some research also shows that this technology could allow patients in a coma to communicate.

I see this technology as having practically unlimited uses. I could imagine one day walking up to my house and thinking about opening the door and wala the door opens. Then you go about everything else by thinking about doing them such as turning on the light and television and then changing the channel. This technology could revolutionize the way we use computers, how we play video games, how we communicate, and how prosthetic limbs are controlled. I strongly implore everyone to check out this site about Emotiv's EPOC technology.

Here is one short clip about it but please check out others:

The Tooth Fairy's True Agenda

Do you think the tooth fairy is getting ripped off every time she leaves money for your tooth? It's time to think again because those teeth are worth more than you think. At the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine teeth are being used to restore sight. The doctors use a procedure called modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis or MOOKP. By using a small piece of the inside of someone's cheek and using their actual tooth, doctors can rebuild certain parts of the eye. This procedure is intended for patients who have suffered severe damage to their cornea. The cheek tissue is used to as the mucus tissue around the pupil. Then the tooth with a hole drilled through it is used to hold a prosthetic lens. Other techniques exist to replace damaged corneas; however, this procedure is used if the damage is too severe for other procedures to work. Also MOOKP has the advantage of using a person's own tissue instead of someone else's tissue (normally a dead person's cornea). This eliminates the chance that the immune system will reject the new implant. Sharon Thorton underwent this procedure and has 20/70 vision now. The only initial drawback is the appearance of her eye. However, after her eye has time to heal, she can have a cosmetic eye shield placed on her eye which will hide the cheek tissue and tooth.

MOOKP has been used in Europe before but is less common in the U.S. because of other procedures that are faster and more aesthetically pleasing. MOOKP's main purpose is for special situations such as Sharon Thorton who had Stevens-Johnson syndrome or people who had chemical burns.

DWI: Driving While Impaired... visually?

As clarified in one of my comments, this blog is designed to advocate funding for medical technology. I plan to give numbers and data to show the benefits of technology, but I also plan to show in every post at least one new technology which has been developed to help disabled or handicapped people live better lives as the primary example of why medical tech funding is important.

So for this post's new technology is a car driven by the blind. Now I know some of you are immediately preparing for the next time you drive on the road by grabbing your racing helmet, strapping a couple of pillows to yourself, and having a roll cage installed on your car after hearing this, but it isn't as crazy of an idea as it sounds. Students at Virginia Tech have actually built a go-cart like vehicle that a blind person can successfully and safely drive. This insane idea can actually be thought of as a larger version of those toy robots that kids can buy that make certain actions after waving your hand in front of the toy or something to that extent. This is because lasers are used in both the car and the toy to recognize obstacles near the object. The car uses more advanced systems which provide distance information and, through voice commands, tell the driver how far to turn the steering. The drivers also wear a vest which vibrates in different places to signal the driver to speed up, slow down, or, if need be, slam on brakes. A map system called Airpix will be used to allow the driver to read the map similarly to how one reads Braille by shooting air through small holes in the map to give a layout of the area. The developers of this car say they are a long way off from perfecting this technology and other obstacles such as laws prohibiting blind drivers must be overcome before the technology will ever be seen on the road.

I'm sure some of you reading this post are thinking "why not just make a car that drives itself", but the idea of this car is not only to allow the blind to have their own transportation but also to give the blind a sense of freedom and control. This would provide not only a better life but could have positive psychological impacts for the blind. Also this technology might one day be applied to all cars to give all drivers more ways in which to be alert to potential danger on the road.

And if this car is one day seen on the road then I guess Criss Angel is out one trick. his blind driving skills won't be so impressive since the whole neighborhood might be driving blind. :)

video of car in action

Medical Tech and Its Benefits

Medical technology has increased our longevity significantly. Technologies such as heart monitors and pacemakers allow doctors to better monitor and control our health. However, technology is now advancing beyond helping common health issues that people might face. Newer technologies are allowing us to aid people who aren't necessarily sick but who have a disability, possibly from a disease. Early forms of this technology would include hearing aids for those with hearing impairment and prosthetics for those who might have lost limbs. These technologies were initially somewhat simplistic because the prosthetics for example had limited mobility and use, but now with technological advancements in computers the users of prosthetics can be given more control over their prosthetic augmentations.

Computer technologies combined with neuroscience open up a whole new world for enabling the disabled. One of these new technologies helps the blind to see by using a tiny camera attached to glasses combined with an electrode panel attached to the retina. This technology only allows the user to see small amounts of light which can distinguish doors, objects, and people. The researchers involved with this technology are also trying to shrink down the camera size to allow it to be placed into someone's eye.

Advancements such as this one require lots of research and funding. However, the resources necessary are worth using because the technology can not only help people with impairments, but some of the technologies in development could be applied in other ways.