A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
 |
Enough already! It’s gotten to the point where I dread picking up the morning newspaper to discover what new financial fiasco awaits us. Mayor of London Boris Johnson put it well: “Spending an hour with the Financial Times is like being trapped in a room with assorted members of a millennialist suicide cult.” Granted, he’s blaming the messenger, but still. . . .
I need some good news as I push away from the starting block and sprint into 2009, and you could probably use some, too. Fortunately, as editor of a medical manufacturing publication, I don’t have to look far to find reasons to be cheerful (with apologies to Ian Dury). As markets and governments play chicken—with our money, no less—medical technology forges ahead with innovative ways to cure disease, alleviate suffering, and improve our overall quality of life. Here are just three examples of medical milestones posted on our blog, www.medtechinsider.com, since the start of this year.
A company called Second Sight Medical Products is making miracles happen in the city of angels. Based in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Second Sight (Sylmar, CA, USA) has developed retinal prostheses that bring a ray of hope to people with incurable blinding diseases of the outer retina. An eye implant with an array of 60 electrodes is currently being tested on 17 blind individuals in the United States and Europe. This is a second-generation implant—the previous model had a 16-electrode array and a relatively large receiver implanted behind the ear. Patients testing the new device were able to find a door from approximately 6 metres away and to follow a line on the floor for a similar distance. A third-generation artificial retina is being developed under the auspices of the Artificial Retina Project at the US Energy Department: it will contain 200 or more electrodes on a thin, flexible film. Ultimately, the government agency hopes to develop a 1000-electrode array that would allow a blind person to recognize objects and read large-scale newsprint. Read the full story at www.medtechinsider.com/?p= 3461.
Another article we posted in early January described a mechanical suit developed by Israeli company Argo Medical Technologies (Haifa) that enables paraplegics to walk and even climb stairs (www.medtechinsider. com/?p=3816). The ReWalk, which mimics a crab’s exoskeleton, has completed a first round of clinical testing. Inventor Amit Goffer was inspired to create the device after he became disabled in an accident. It can be demoralizing for an adult to experience everything from a child’s perspective, says Goffer, adding that the ReWalk system is designed to help restore dignity to people who are confined to wheelchairs.
Historians trace the origins of minimally invasive surgery back to Hippocrates, but tremendous advances continue to this day. One article posted on medtechinsider (www.medtechinsider.com/?p= 3753) told the story of a couple of experts in the use of “snake robotics” for search and rescue operations inside buildings who decided to apply their expertise to explorations inside the body. They developed the CardioARM, which is strong and flexible yet small enough to fit inside the body. Controlled by a joystick, the device will allow open-heart surgery to be performed with a small incision. It can wrap around organs like the heart until it finds its target, and the “snake” remembers where it has been on its tortuous journey to avoid harming delicate tissues as it retracts from any point. Clinical trials on humans are expected to start this year.
There’s plenty more on our blog where that came from. It should be noted, incidentally, that medtechinsider covers industry’s tribulations along with its achievements, so the news is not always this upbeat. But even when it does not fully achieve its objectives, the med-tech industry is single-mindedly trying to improve the human condition. There is no deficit in the creativity and initiative of the medical device industry, and that is something to feel good about as we begin this new year.
