German Company Produces Advanced Robotic Arm
Festo, a company based in Germany, has developed a mechanical arm that uses advanced techniques in automated movement. Called Airic’s Arm, the device was modeled on its human counterpart, according to the Web site “The Future of Things.”

The human arm, from hand to shoulder joint, has 28 bones and 64 muscles. Airic’s Arm has 30 artificial muscles, called Fluidic Muscles, also developed by Festo. The Fluidic Muscles are made of tubes and are operated by running compressed air through them. The compressed air causes the artificial muscles to behave similarly to human muscle tissue, but they have one interesting advantage; they don’t experience fatigue. The artificial muscles can lift an object and hold it in the same position indefinitely.

The arm has computer-designed three-dimensional polyamide bones, along with 72 proportional valves, pressure sensors, and power electronics to give the device reliable muscle control. Festo plans to design other robotic human parts within its bionic projects.

For further information, see www.tfot.info.

Team at Idaho State Developing “Smart” Prosthetic Hand 
A team at Idaho State University is developing a “smart” prosthetic hand. They plan to develop a device that both uses nerve signals to fully simulate natural hand motions and responds to sensory and visual feedback, according to an article on Idaho State’s Web site.

“The existing commercial technology for arm and hand amputees hasn’t changed significantly in the past six decades,” says electrical engineer and team member Subbaram Naidu. “The Department of Defense is embarking on a research program to fund prosthetic research to revolutionize upper body prosthetics and to develop artificial arms that will feel, look and perform like a real human arm guided by the central nervous system.”  

The team plans to use skin sensors to extract “electromyographic” signals. In other words, they will record the electrical activity in muscle and then work to determine which signals correspond with which intended hand motions. They will then use sophisticated computing techniques to develop an “intelligent” control for the device. They are also working to solve the issue of tissue rejection of the artificial limbs.

“We’ll use this study as a potential springboard to other possible research in tissue engineering and the creation of artificial organs,” says James Lai, another team member and part of the College of Pharmacy at ISU.

The Department of Defense is funding the study as part of its ongoing rehabilitation efforts for military personnel.

For more information, visit www2.isu.edu.

Limb Salvage Team at Georgetown Enjoys High Rate of Success
“If a [diabetic] patient has a below-the-knee amputation, the chances are 50 percent that the patient will need another amputation or will die within the next five years,” says Dr. Christopher E. Attinger, in Georgetown University Hospital’s Physician Update. “With that kind of mortality rate, it’s imperative to do everything possible to save a limb.”

Dr. Attinger heads Georgetown University Hospital’s Center for Wound Healing. The center uses a coordinated approach among many types of specialties, which results in a 97 percent success rate for saving patients’ endangered limbs. That high rate of success translates to higher quality of life for patients.

“It feels great to finally be out of the woods, not having to worry that I might be faced with losing some of my mobility,” says Ralph Block, a patient who had an ulcerated foot wound for more than a year before he went to Georgetown. The team there took one hour to do a podiatric procedure that reduced pressure on the wound. Within a month, it was completely healed. About 70 percent of Georgetown’s limb salvage patients are diabetic.

“The limb salvage team specializes in dealing with complicated cases, and we’re saving legs that other approaches haven’t been able to save,” says Richard Neville, chief of Georgetown’s vascular surgery department. “We’ve accumulated a wealth of expertise in treating these types of patients, and our outcomes reflect the success of this approach.”

For more information, visit www.gmhsc.com.

Sesame Street Producing DVD for Families of Veterans
The nonprofit organization behind the children’s television show Sesame Street is working on a DVD for families of military veterans. Sesame Workshop will distribute the DVD to military families to help disabled veterans talk to their young children about the resulting changes in their lives.

In 2006, a DVD produced to help military families deal with the difficulty of parents deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan got such a good response that Sesame Workshop decided to continue making videos on the subject.

In the new DVD, a muppet named Rosita talks with her parents about her feelings. Her father has returned home in a wheelchair, and Rosita struggles with the changes that her father’s disability brings.

Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop, says he intends the program to model behavior for parents to deal with the issues that arise, and help them find answers to questions their children might ask.

Army Maj. David Rozelle, an amputee who was injured in Iraq before becoming a parent to two young children, says, “These little people our kids trust so much can explain limb loss and help kids cope,” he said. “We don’t do it very well ourselves.”

For more information, visit www.newsvine.com.

Children from Ukraine Travel to Miami for Prostheses
In December 2005, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, D-Fl., joined a delegation visiting Ukraine. When the group asked President Victor Yuschenko and his wife, Kateryna, what they could do to help the growing democracy of Ukraine, the first lady suggested assisting Ukrainian children with receiving modern prostheses.

As reported in the Miami Herald, 20 children were selected, and in October the first eight of them traveled to Orlando, Fl., to receive upper-limb prostheses donated by Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics and Otto Bock HealthCare. Endolite and Hosmer also donated products, and Aetrex made shoes for the children.

During their 15-day visit, the children also received occupational therapy from Bambi Anderson, OTR/L, who helped them learn everyday skills like shaving, brushing teeth, and playing catch. The group also visited Disney World and the Miami Seaquarium, where they swam in a pool with dolphins.

Diaz-Balart is working with the ACA to introduce a Federal Parity Bill in 2008.

For more information, visit www.voanews.com.

Computer Scientist Wins MacArthur “Genius” Award
Yoky Matsuoka, director of the University of Washington’s “Neurobotics” Laboratory, is one of 24 winners of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award, reports the University of Washington (UW) media office. The prestigious fellowship comes with a $500,000 no-strings-attached grant.

Matsuoka, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at UW, works to create robots that can help the disabled or people with restricted mobility. The term “neurobotics” combines “neuroscience” and “robotics.”

Matsuoka creates lifelike robotic prostheses by investigating the way the human central nervous system produces signals that control limb movements, and using her findings in the devices she creates. “What I build is not even the next step, but many steps ahead of what is available today,” Matsuoka says.

Matthew O’Donnell, dean of the UW College of Engineering, explains Matsuoka’s unique qualifications for this research. “What’s different about Yoky is that she’s a mechanical engineer, neuroscientist, bioengineer, robotics expert and computer scientist, all in one. She has the ability to see what is possible by combining all these disciplines.”

MacArthur grants are given each year to U.S. residents who show “exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.” Matsuoka will continue her work of using robotics to improve people’s lives.

“There seems to be a gap between what’s available to disabled people right now and what is possible with robotics,” Matsuoka says. “One way to do that may be to start a nonprofit that would fill that gap.”

For more information, visit www.washington.edu.

Da Vinci Awards Honor O&P
The da Vinci Awards, presented by the National MS Society September 28 in Dearborn, Mich., honored several individuals and companies in O&P.

According to the da Vinci Awards Web site, the PROPRIO FOOT™, the foot module by Ossur that angles itself to the terrain and slope of the ground, won for its “unprecedented physiological benefits for transtibial amputees.”

The WalkAide System, developed by Innovative Neurotronics Inc., also won for its Myo-Orthotics™ technology, which uses electrical stimulation to battle foot drop in patients with stroke, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis or cerebral palsy.

Dana Bowman, a bilateral amputee who was a member of the U.S. Army’s elite parachuting team, the Golden Knights, before his injury and who later re-enlisted, won a Spirit of da Vinci Award for his work helping other disabled people and designing improved prosthetic limbs.

The da Vinci Apprentice Award went to fifteen-year-old Grayson Rosenberger for his inventive low-cost Bubble Wrap™ cosmetic covering for prosthetic limbs and subsequent work in Ghana training others to make the covering.

For more information, visit www.nmssmi.org/davinci.

Care for Amputees, By Amputees, in Afghanistan
Anyone who walks unassisted into the largest prosthetics workshop in Afghanistan would probably notice pretty quickly that almost no one else there could. Nearly 80 percent of the staff members are landmine victims, and all of them are in some way disabled, reports Reuters.

“We employ only disabled,” says Najuddin Helal, orthopedic specialist and director of the International Committee of the Red Cross Orthopedic Center in west Kabul. “It is a kind of discrimination, but we like to call it positive discrimination.”

Helal is a landmine victim himself. He was the center’s 34th patient after his legs were blown off at age 18. Now 43, he manages the center’s staff of 240.

“There are good advantages. It is a way to give jobs to the disabled. They know the problems [patients face] because they have passed through them, and then they can teach other disabled easily,” says Helal.

The center in Kabul produces around 4,000 prostheses and 10,000 orthoses every year. There is good news in the numbers.

“The number of prostheses needed remains steady, because they only last two to three years and need to be replaced,” Helal says. “But the number of new landmine amputees is going down. There are now maybe two or three people injured or killed by a landmine per day.”

People in the News

Christine Michael has joined ABC in the facility accreditation department as a program assistant. Michael, who earned her BA in communication studies, will be responsible for screening applications for completeness.
Tina Moran, director of meetings and conventions at AOPA, has passed the exam given by the Convention Industry Council to become a certified meetings professional (CMP). The CMP credential demonstrates an individual’s comprehensive knowledge of meetings management.

Bradley M. Lamm has been named medical advisor to the board of directors at BOC. Lamm is head of podiatry and director of the podiatric residency training program at the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics in the International Center for Limb Lengthening, affiliated with Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Md. The board has also named Mickey Fitzgerald, founder of Dynamic Orthotics & Prosthetics in Atlanta, Ga., as a public member of its board of directors.

Sara Lutz (formerly Sara Troyan) has been named product specialist for PEL Supply. She will work with vendors and product managers to gather product information and coordinate product training with customer service.

Jeffrey Fay, Eric Hinderager, and C. Leigh Pipkin have entered the University of Michigan Orthotics and Prosthetics Center residency program. Fay has a master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University, Hinderager received his certificate at Northwestern University, and Pipkin earned her master’s from Georgia Tech.

Richard Whitehead, a bilateral amputee from England, has received the Harmony Spirit of Comrades Award. Whitehead finished this year’s Comrades Ultra Marathon, a 56-mile race in South Africa, in nine hours, 54 minutes and 19 seconds. The award is given by the organizers to up to three participants a year who are considered to embody the spirit of the race.

Businesses in the News

The American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists has launched a new online glossary of research terminology. The glossary, which is intended as a public service for the O&P profession, is available on the Academy’s Web site, www.oandp.org.

ABC has settled the lawsuit it had initiated against BOC. The lawsuit was begun over BOC’s use of the term “C.Ped.” as a term for certified pedorthists. The two parties settled amicably, without admission of liability by either, and the terms and conditions of the settlement remain confidential.

Advanced Arm Dynamics (AAD), an upper-limb prosthetic company based in Redondo Beach, Calif., was invited to be among the national experts that will write sections of a new military textbook, Care of the Combat Amputee. AAD will write the chapter focusing on fitting techniques, procedures, new technologies and the latest protocols followed at military hospitals such as Walter Reed. The textbook is scheduled for publication in 2008.

The ALPS Corporation plant in Tampa, Fl., caught fire October 1 when a machine’s electrical system malfunctioned. About 80 firefighters quenched the blaze within a half-hour. No one was inside the building at the time of the fire, and the damage was limited to the area around the machine.

Segs4Vets, a program of Disability Rights Advocates for Technology (DRAFT), donated Segways to 42 disabled military service members who lost limbs or sustained severe injuries while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The donation, their largest to date, took place in a special ceremony at the Alamo on November 7.

The Pacific Rim Conference by the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) will take place January 27-30, 2008 at the Sheraton Maui Resort at Kaanapali Beach.

The inaugural Upper Limb Socket course, cosponsored by the Orthotic and Prosthetic Group of America (OPGA) and POINT Health Centers of America, will take place April 25-27, 2008 at the Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center in Chicago.

Ossur has announced the inauguration of Asia Pacific operations in Shanghai, China. This regional office will service the growing Asian market, including not only China, but Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

The Pakistan Institute of Prosthetic and Orthotic Services (PIPOS) has received $45,000 from Direct Relief to expand their services to help those who were paralyzed by spinal cord injuries during the earthquake of 2005.

The Tillges Certified Orthotic Prosthetic Inc. office in Woodbury, Minn., is moving to a new location in the city. The new offices will allow greater space for treatment rooms, the walking gym and future growth. The company currently has four offices in the area: Maplewood, Woodbury, St. Paul and Minneapolis, in addition to four other satellite offices.