Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Future
In the future, if the debate over funding for medical tech R&D continues, I believe both sides will suffer. Continuing this debate could sometimes put other issues on hold. Also it can slow down the development of new technologies that could have life saving potential. I think that without providing funding for medical technology we are losing out on developing great technologies. Luckily it seems that more support is growing for medical tech research. Also President Obama in supporting new research. Obama says that he will in general support all fields of science especially the medical aspect. So my thoughts are that this issue will never truly end for everyone, but that the government might finally come to fully stand on the side that supports medical tech research which will provoke the majority of the populous to do the same.
Annotated Links
Here are a few links that I would like to emphasize for their importance, relevance, and interestingness :
By far one of my favorite posts was related to this link. The technology, EPOC, created by Emotiv has practically unlimited uses. This technology also opens up a new door for prosthetic control. Up to this point prosthetics which could be controlled required neural implants or nerve relocations. With EPOC a user could control their limb with a simple headset rather than needing surgery.
One of the craziest sounding ideas ever, blind people driving. However, through the technology demonstrated in this link, blind driving might one day be possible. This link provides a fairly in-depth look at the ways in which blind driving might one day occur.
This link demonstrates the multiple uses of the body even in ways you might not expect. The article speaks about using a tooth to give someone sight. This idea sounds ridiculous but is very possible. For a news article, it has very good information and provided some links to sites which gave a more detailed description of the actual procedure used to give someone their sight using their tooth.
I like this link because it showed a different side to the technology I have spoke on. Rather than just aid a disabled person, the smart pen and paper technology helps to educate them as well. Also this technology could help anyone who is in a classroom-like setting and has trouble keeping up with teachers or professors.
This link is one that brought to light new information about prosthetics. Before I read this article, I had never placed much thought if any at all into the sense of feeling that is lost with prosthetic limbs. The article is definitely intriguing in the sense that it makes you think more about every aspect of prosthetics rather than just the simple prosthetic limb.
Through this link I realized the true cost of both time and money that is placed into medical R&D. If you want a reality check and want to find out how much funding exists and how much funding can cost, then you should check out this link.
Self Analysis
Throughout this blog I have learned a lot about medical technology and the research and funding placed into its development. Some of my posts have peaked my interest (and hopefully everyone's) while providing excellent examples of new, beneficial technologies. Other posts have been on the simpler yet just as beneficial side of technology. However, I have learned the most from websites which spoke directly on the issue of medical funding. Originally I did not imagine that a large percent of people would be opposed to increasing funds for medical technology, but I found out otherwise when I read articles telling how long technology could take to be created. Still, some surveys showed that a large percent of people do support medical tech R&D. I believe links like that one put things into a better perspective for me. It showed me that many people support tech, but that room is left for improvement into gathering more support. Also through this blog I have learned about all the aspects of medical tech. I realized that much of the funding comes from private companies. One satisfying point that I was able to add to my argument was how some technology had already been developed that was simple but provided extensive benefits. Through websites such as that one, I learned that many things exist which are excellent proof of the benefits of medical research. Also in a surprising way, I have been able to better shape my argument based on the ways in which other bloggers have shaped their arguments. While reading one blog which has a similar format as mine, I picked up on how the blogger gave excellent examples of green technology and how he related those to everyday use. Finally, I have learned that current technologies can be implemented for medical situations even if they aren't medically relevant initially.
Theory Post
As the debate for medical technology research continues, one might wonder if such a debate will ever end. I don't know if it will end, but I have thought of some solutions that would help facilitate an end. My first suggestion was a very interesting statement I came across while researching this debate. Gathering support for medical tech research can be difficult, but the difficulty is further increased when someone has to pay to find out whether or not technologies are succeeding. One example of this is the New England Journal of Medicine. People have to pay for this journal to find out whether or not technology has been successful, and how it is being used. So, people must first pay to support technology, and then they must pay to find out whether their paid support was worthwhile. Information on medical tech should be more widely available for free. That way more people would see the benefits technology provides. My next idea stems from data that might show that increasing allocation of money towards tech research might cause increases in medical cost. This problem partially arises from the cost of new employees who have to be trained and paid to operate new technologies. I believe that these costs are worthwhile and data should be given that shows how much technology has helped. Finally, technology should be developed for the field or age range that would be most helpful. Not to sound cruel, but technology for children is in a sense more worth the cost than technology for elderly. In many cases when an elderly person develops one illness more are soon to come. To use a crude metaphor, this situation is kind of like a car, eventually the car has many miles on it and, once one problem occurs, more and more problems develop since every part on the car has had lots of wear and tear. For this reason, technology should be focused first on children and then focus should be placed on older and older age groups.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
A Sense of Feeling
An topic I have never personally thought much about is the sense of feel with prosthetic users. I have of course thought that amputees couldn't feel with their prosthetics and how that could be something that amputees miss. However, I never thought that not being able to feel with a prosthetic limb could be extremely hindering or even frustrating. A prime example of this is whether or not a person is grabbing a cup with enough force to hold the cup without breaking the cup. If you have a prosthetic limb without feeling, the only way to know if you are holding the cup is see whether or not you have a grip on the cup and hope that is enough grip to hold the cup. The first step in researching how to give amputees feeling came from nerve transplants from the lost hand to the amputees chest. Doctors found that the amputee could feel hand sensation in the area of their chest wear the hand nerves were transplanted. One experiment was conducted in which two amputees had nerves from their hand transplanted to their chest. After a period of about two months the patients nerves were tested. One patient felt sensation in multiple fingers at once when his chest was touched in the transplant area. The other patient could feel sensation in individual fingers depending on the location of the touch on her chest. Both patients could feel hot and cold and could tell the difference between two grades of sand paper. However, the fingers were rearranged in the sense that the feeling for the middle finger did not necessarily occur between the feeling of the pointer and ring fingers. Researchers say they are a long way from perfecting this art of nerve transplanting and linking to prosthetics, but if they can give amputees any feeling at all then that is helpful and better than nothing.
I think this is amazing. Like I said before I had never put much thought into this. However, if this technology could be perfected, then an amputee could have everything a person with a normal arm has except the aesthetic appearance of a real arm. Although research is being made into the development of artificial skin, so prosthetics might represent their natural counterparts in their appearance in the near future.
Disabled No More
For anyone who has seen Peter Pan, you have seen Hook and his collection of different "hooks" or attachments for his hand. This idea might seem somewhat silly, but it is a great way to give someone the freedom to accomplish many tasks. Prosthetics are not the most advanced pieces of technology, and, although their are constantly improving, they are not perfect and cannot perform every task in the world with ease. For example, a person who might want to go kayaking but has lost a hand or arm could struggle with a normal prosthetic limb, since the prosthetic has limited mobility. However, a prosthetic specifically designed for kayaking or some other rowing activity could great improve the performance and ability of the prosthetic wearer (or amputee) to kayak. Many companies have caught on to this idea and have started to develop a plethora of prosthetic attachments which are specifically suited for certain actions. These actions could be as simple as needing to use a tool to fix a sink to archery or fishing. This website lists a good deal of different prosthetics which have been designed for different tasks.
The innovation of such devices has added a great deal of freedom to many amputees. To be honest, these prosthetics might be the best example of why medical research in technology is important. These prosthetics are a fairly simple idea and probably didn't take as much work or money to develop as other technologies, yet they have proved extremely beneficial. So, even your a skeptic about technologies that sound ridiculous and you therefore don't support funding, you might not realize that some technologies are simple and not ridiculous but still need funding and can have profound impacts.
Monday, November 2, 2009
A Few Blogs I Enjoy Reading
In this post I am going to list a few blogs which I frequently read and try to comment on.
This blog is about current and future super weapons which are being developed in the world. Besides the fact that this is a super cool blog that tells about so awesome and extremely powerful technologies, this blog gives good insight into what future warfare holds and what destruction might be caused as a result of the technology. An interesting factor about the blog is how the blogger advocates for super weapons and also super defense. He argues that to keep up with other countries and to deter war, we should develop super powered weapons which can obliterate an enemy.
This blog, through its struggles of having to recreate a new blog, has shown very good insight into what many consider a major problem in the world, global warming. The biggest draw to this blog is the fact that it denies or at least belittles the existence of global warming, and it provides excellent information to support this argument. I was originally primarily set on global warming existing, but after reading this blog my thoughts are much more torn as to whether or not global warming is a major issue. If you want information about global warming and want facts linked from credible sources, then I highly recommend checking out this blog.
This blog takes a look at the numerous green technologies currently being used and ones in development. I sadly haven't posted on this blog, but I have kept up with it. The green technologies displayed on this blog are extremely unique and very efficient. They use simple things that naturally occur such as wave power, or different forms of gathering solar power to supply power in-place of conventional fossil fuel burning power plants. Some of the coolest technologies I have ever seen are shown on this blog.
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