More Brain Points

The Money is in the Medicine

The Neurobridge electrode sleeve
 http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/8/12/ian-burkhart-paralyzedneurobridge.html

Aadeel Akhtar’s work on prosthetic limbs highlights a revelation in medical technology.  He is spearheading a field of medicine that, sadly, no engineer or doctor would probably ever take part in.  The development of affordable prosthetics.  Why would any sickness treating company (like pharmaceutical companies whose profits rely on fevers and low T-cell counts) proactively work towards “shrinking/curing” their client base?  The money will always be in the medicine.  That’s the reason Akhtar’s work is so valuable.   With the use of 3D printing, Akhtar’s myoelectric hand marks an amazing leap foreword in affordable prosthetic technology.  His design brings the average cost of one prosthetic hand from the standard $25,000-100,000, to $250, which includes the price of production and all the necessary electronics to utilize the hand to its fullest extent.  In his paper “Tact: Design and Performance of an Open-Source, Affordable, myoelectric Prosthetic Hand,” Akhtar compares his prosthetic to other popular models.  His model achieved equal, and in some circumstances better, coordination and movement than some of the other highly rated available prosthetics.  However, Akhtar’s prosthetics might be unsuitable for some who have lost limbs in a different way.  Today, approximately six million people live with a form of paralysis.

Nerves damaged irreparably from extreme trauma and/or disease are very unlikely to repair themselves.  This results in irreversible paralysis of any bodily area that requires passage of signals through the damaged area.  A new technology, over ten years in the making, has finally seen the light of day in hundreds of neuroscience journals.  Scientists and engineers at Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit researching company, have finally refined their neuro bypass technology called Neurobridge.  This amazing, yet fledgling, technology bridges the gap across damaged nerves to restore patients’ ability to voluntarily move a limb or appendage that was previously paralyzed.  Patients with quadriplegia have functional (though paralyzed) legs, feet, arms and/or hands, but are stripped of their uses due to severe spinal cord injuries.  Without use, paralyzed limbs will atrophy and the lack of movement can result in dangerous blood clots.  A 2014 Washington Post article covered one of the first successful Neurobridge tests in the article “Ohio Surgeons Hope Chip in Man’s Brain Lets Him Control Paralyzed Hand With Thoughts.”  After undergoing invasive brain surgery and hours of computerized neural mapping, researchers watched in awe as a quadriplegic man clenched his fist, out of volition, for the first time in four years.  The computer was so in tune with his neural signaling rhythms that he could move his hand a tenth of a second after thinking about it.

Prosthetics, like Akhtar’s, are an option for paralysis patients but are ultimately a treatment for a different family of disorders that doesn’t quite fit the bill when it comes to paralyzed patients.  Neurobridge represents an amazing new opportunity for paralysis patients to regain control of what is rightfully theirs.  The ideas behind Neurobridge are very logical but the technology, hardware, and surgery are not.  The picture below explains the process in detail but here is an abbreviated version.  A small microchip implanted in the motor cortex relays neural impulses to an enormous computer database that interprets and translates the signal in a matter of milliseconds.  The newly computerized signals are then relayed from the computer to a set of electrodes arranged in a sleeve-like band wrapping around the area of identified nerve damage.  With instructions from the computer, the electrodes can supersede the section of damaged nerves and restore nerve connections.  

http://postgraphics.tumblr.com/post/84324334453/how-the-neurobridge-works-researchers-at-battelle

Neurobridge is, however, very far from commercial use due to the invasive nature of the microchip implantation surgery, impracticality of carrying around a colossal multi-ton computer database, and the extremely high costs of the necessary hardware. Researchers at Battelle are working diligently to bring costs down and streamline Neurobridge into a realistic and affordable option for those suffering from most types of paralysis.  Years, if not decades, of additional development lie ahead in preparing Neurobridge for the general public.  Hopefully, Battelle’s nonprofit philosophy will parallel with Akhtar’s in lowering the costs of typical prosthetic-related treatments.           

 

References

The Battelle Memorial Institute (2015).  Paralysis and Spinal Cord Injuries, retrieved from http://www.battelle.org/our-work/pharmaceutical-medical-devices/medical-devices/neurotechnology/neurorehab-neural-bypass-technology/impact-of-paralysis

Grether, N., (2014). The quadriplegic who moved his muscles with his mind, Al Jazeera America, US

Slade, P., Akhtar, A., Nguyen, M., & Bretl, T. (2015). Tact: Design and performance of an open-sourced, affordable, myoelectric prosthetic hand. The International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seattle, WA.

Tankersley, J. (2014). Ohio Surgeons Hope Chip in Man’s Brain Lets Him Control Paralyzed Hand With Thoughts.  The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.