The most advanced prosthetic in the world | Albert Chi | TEDxPortland

the history of prosthetics dates back thousands of years ago but it really wasn't until 1858 the artificial limbs were improved to look and feel more natural Douglas Bligh a physician from New York used his knowledge of anatomy to inspire his new design of a prosthetic leg to move and function naturally not after is a vention the civil war broke out and with the increasing number of disabled soldiers our government quickly grew interests and Bligh's advanced prosthetic limbs oddly enough 160 years later were still faced with the same challenges to improve natural movements and improve capabilities of prosthetics to help support our disabled veterans back in 2015 I served in Operation Enduring Freedom with the United States Navy as a trauma surgeon and I have personally cared for those wounded warriors who have returned home from Iraq and I think from Iraq and Afghanistan [Applause] would you believe that over 80% of our wounded warriors returning home have suffered the loss of an extremity 80% this is mostly due to the protective body armor that were issuing but also the weapon of choice of our enemy the IAD and when you talk to our wounded warriors you cannot ask for a more motivated group of individuals all they want to do is to get their lives back in order contribute to society and many times return to active duty and because of specialty centers like Walter Reed our return to duty rate after extremity loss has dramatically improved from previous conflicts but there is a concerning pattern the overwhelming majority of those who are able to return to duty have lost a leg and because of the lack of advanced prosthetics for the arm those who have lost an arm are unfit for duty the loss of an arm often means the end of their careers and significant impact on their daily lives this huge technology gap between lower and upper prosthetics motivated our Department of Defense to challenge the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab to come up with an engineering solution you guys today I am thrilled to introduce an idea that would change the world of prosthetics and beyond delivering new hope and possibility to all the modular prosthetic limb for simplicity's sake I'll refer to this as the MPO well first it's modular design can replace limb loss in every amputation level from the hand below elbow above elbow even at the shoulder it has 26 articulating joints and is able to move each individual finger independently anything the human arm can do this limb can emulate not only is it motor capable but it's sensory capable as well 200 sensors feedback information of temperature pressure position velocity even acceleration it's more than just a prosthetic device but truly an engineering solution to replace the human arm now sinking the impale to the human body can be quite the undertaking so in order to control the arm we perform a procedure surgical procedure called targeted muscle reinnervation which rewires the nerves that carry information of the missing limb to residual existing muscles now when the patient thinks of movie their missing limb these signals are rerouted to these muscles acting as a biological amplifier you can kind of think of me as a surgical electrician by using advanced algorithms like pattern recognition your virtual training we reinforced those neural connections of the brain down to these rewired muscles and we can translate muscle contractions into intended movements to the prosthetic device we simultaneously record the muscle activity from multiple channels within each channel we identify key features potentially giving us thousands of combinations we can map - you can think of it as a signature symphony of muscle activity that is specific to a movement that is controlled intuitively the patient simply thinks of moving and the prosthetic moves we've even been able to map individual finger movements believe it or not that technology is out there through the stimulation of sensory nerves that we can feedback information to the patient to feel pinpoint places of the entire hand detect surface texture distinguish between hard and soft objects and hopefully someday even proprioception the sense of the relative position of one's own body parts well now how do we communicate with the MPL using two mile bands around the patient's upper arm we record the electrical signals of the muscles and then this is sent wirelessly to the NPL intuitive moment intuitive motions can actually be programmed using your cell phone in just minutes no seriously [Music] this app allows for the addition of any desired movement we can make adjustments of the limbs such as impedance speed special modes for particular activities you get status updates such as the battery life the streaming of data even the temperature of the components of the each device part giving the user complete freedom of control for any situation while it's one thing to talk about the MPL it's another wild experience to actually see it on a patient this is mr. Johnny Matheny he is my first targeted muscle reinnervation patient johnny is a man of many firsts he's the first person to be able to take the MPL home for a longitudinal study but he's also the first individual to have an osseointegration implant of the upper extremity performed in the United States before surgery Johnny had a traditional socket that was limiting and constricting strapped to his body now he has an intra medullary implant into his humerus that extends out of his body and acts as a direct skeletal attachment for the MPL now the MPL attaches it's more comfortable it's easy to use and that also gives him complete free range of motion it's even more phenomenal to see this in person [Applause] in fact would you like to see it in person [Applause] it is with great pleasure I'd like to introduce you to mr. Johnny Matheny my journey began in 2005 that's when I got cancer they did six surgeries trying to cut it out 39 radiation treatments trying to burn it out but my cancer doctor told me they have tried everything in their power so they're what to amputate but I've always believed in p.m. a positive mental attitude and I have dedicated my life to advancing prosthetics and I have volunteered to do both the TMR surgery and the osseointegration now 13 years later they tell me I'm the most technically advanced man in the robotic field today so move on over Arnold I'm the new Terminator I can cook dinner I can trim the hedges I'm even started to take piano lessons my next goal is to learn to play Amazing Grace on the piano amazing as you can see Johnny is moving completely naturally but what's really amazing is his ability to do this so like six seven pounds it's about that it's designed for the 50th percentile male amazing Wow how much investment for this extraordinary innovation how much does this cost Louise believe it or not it's been over a hundred and twenty million dollars of R&D to this day wow that's amazing all right Johnny thank you so much [Applause] [Music] this is only the beginning over the next few years johnny is hoping to have a sensory cuff electrode surgically implanted giving him the full range of sensations much like he had before his sir amputation but beyond Johnny my personal aspiration in fact my career goal is affordability and accessibility I'll say it again [Music] affordability and accessibility of the MPL for anyone in need for one-hundredth of the cost if Douglas black could only see us now a hundred and sixty years later our advancement to function and ease of use were anyone missing an upper extremity at any level I could learn to play Amazing Grace on the piano with ease you guys be excited [Applause] we are at a crossroads of breakthrough surgery and breakthrough technology we are witnessing the evolution of man and machine [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 51,388

Rating: 4.9101472 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Technology, Cancer, Design, Future, Grit, Life Development, Medicine, Prosthetics

Id: 1KZfoS6moLA

Length: 12min 11sec (731 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 24 2018