A woman has become the first human to receive a robotic limb fused with both her nervous and skeletal systems — and she’s being dubbed the “real bionic woman.”
Man, this is a terrible article… Of course it’s from the NY Post.
So, this article is using very specific wording to make a bunch of nonsensical claims. The most common, and the one every journalist makes about any powered upper limb " is controlled by the users mind"… Well, how else do humans controll anything? How do you control your keyboard or mouse, how do you breathe?
The next big one is claiming that this is the first of it’s kind, which is only true if worded correctly. It’s not the first targeted Muscle reintegration, nor the first osseointergration. They’re just the first to combine the two, but there’s pretty good reasons why people haven’t done so in the past.
Both operations require multiple teams of surgeons to work directly with teams of prosthetist. It also requires the perfect patient, an upper limb traumatic amputation that wasn’t so traumatic to where it didn’t damage too much soft tissue.
But the largest reason this won’t ever be adopted to a larger scale is simply the prevalence of infection and the hardware rejection for both operations. Even in this study the radial osseointergration failed after 5 months requiring a revision, and the implant at the ulna failed after 3.5 years, requiring another revision.
Imo it’s nearly impossible to prevent infections from forming around transdermal hardware given enough time.
Don’t forget the hardware maintenance. Sometimes entire companies disappear overnight, and then the patients are left with proprietary hardware that no one else can maintain running proprietary firmware that no one else can maintain. And the only longterm solution is another major surgery or dying of rejection.
Tbh I wouldn’t have any kind of implant installed unless it’s already been in widespread use for over 5-10 years. You’d be amazed how many orthopedic implants get recalled just a few years after they’ve been approved.
All of these “ground breaking” studies in prosthetics aren’t for the benefit of the prosthetic community. They’re just thinly veiled marketing schemes attempting to grab venture capital, or DOD funding.
Insurance companies rarely ever approve powered limbs in the first place, so the only people who could possibly benefit from this research are workers comp patients, and maybe a few soldiers whenever the military wants some decent marketing materials.
Not only that but on the technical side it is a TERRIBLE idea.
Obsolescence is affecting all technology faster and faster. Would you fuse an iphone to your body? In 8 months they’re releasing a new one. Even if you decide to go open source, you can’t connect it to an OS or a computer because then updates are required
If it has network capabilities it needs to be constantly updated for security, or else your prosthetic leg becomes part of a botnet launching DDOS attacks like those toothbrushes. Even worse, what if instead of a ransomware attack it’s literally becomes a ransom. Want your bionic heart to keep beating? Gonna have to pay the hacker who cracked it.
It gets even worse if the company that builds it goes belly up. At least with a peg leg you can carve a new one, once software gets involved you lose all control unless you’re building it yourself.
Just last year Poland literally had to hire hackers to hack their own train because train manufacturers artificially locked them down when they were repaired by a third party.
ownership of electronics is getting absolutely shady fast and you want to integrate them into your body??? You want to give it access to your brain??? Imagine if someone hacks your brain computer interface Elon Musk!
Man, this is a terrible article… Of course it’s from the NY Post.
So, this article is using very specific wording to make a bunch of nonsensical claims. The most common, and the one every journalist makes about any powered upper limb " is controlled by the users mind"… Well, how else do humans controll anything? How do you control your keyboard or mouse, how do you breathe?
The next big one is claiming that this is the first of it’s kind, which is only true if worded correctly. It’s not the first targeted Muscle reintegration, nor the first osseointergration. They’re just the first to combine the two, but there’s pretty good reasons why people haven’t done so in the past.
Both operations require multiple teams of surgeons to work directly with teams of prosthetist. It also requires the perfect patient, an upper limb traumatic amputation that wasn’t so traumatic to where it didn’t damage too much soft tissue.
But the largest reason this won’t ever be adopted to a larger scale is simply the prevalence of infection and the hardware rejection for both operations. Even in this study the radial osseointergration failed after 5 months requiring a revision, and the implant at the ulna failed after 3.5 years, requiring another revision.
Imo it’s nearly impossible to prevent infections from forming around transdermal hardware given enough time.
Hey this guy sounds like he knows what he’s talking about!
I trust them uncritically and wholeheartedly, because yhey said it with confidence and words I didn’t already know
Don’t forget the hardware maintenance. Sometimes entire companies disappear overnight, and then the patients are left with proprietary hardware that no one else can maintain running proprietary firmware that no one else can maintain. And the only longterm solution is another major surgery or dying of rejection.
Tbh I wouldn’t have any kind of implant installed unless it’s already been in widespread use for over 5-10 years. You’d be amazed how many orthopedic implants get recalled just a few years after they’ve been approved.
All of these “ground breaking” studies in prosthetics aren’t for the benefit of the prosthetic community. They’re just thinly veiled marketing schemes attempting to grab venture capital, or DOD funding.
Insurance companies rarely ever approve powered limbs in the first place, so the only people who could possibly benefit from this research are workers comp patients, and maybe a few soldiers whenever the military wants some decent marketing materials.
Not only that but on the technical side it is a TERRIBLE idea.
Obsolescence is affecting all technology faster and faster. Would you fuse an iphone to your body? In 8 months they’re releasing a new one. Even if you decide to go open source, you can’t connect it to an OS or a computer because then updates are required
If it has network capabilities it needs to be constantly updated for security, or else your prosthetic leg becomes part of a botnet launching DDOS attacks like those toothbrushes. Even worse, what if instead of a ransomware attack it’s literally becomes a ransom. Want your bionic heart to keep beating? Gonna have to pay the hacker who cracked it.
It gets even worse if the company that builds it goes belly up. At least with a peg leg you can carve a new one, once software gets involved you lose all control unless you’re building it yourself.
Just last year Poland literally had to hire hackers to hack their own train because train manufacturers artificially locked them down when they were repaired by a third party.
ownership of electronics is getting absolutely shady fast and you want to integrate them into your body??? You want to give it access to your brain??? Imagine if someone hacks your brain computer interface Elon Musk!
Do you know any other adverbs?