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Tibion's PowerKnee Wins Silicon Valley Emerging Technology Award for Medical Devices

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Tibion, a leader in the development of bionic devices for the mobility impaired, today announced that its product, the PowerKnee, was selected as the winner of the prestigious Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal Emerging Technology Award (ETA) for Medical Devices. The PowerKnee is a wearable bionic device for the leg which actively and transparently supplements muscle strength.

"It is an honor to be recognized as an innovator in technology among medical device companies," said Kern Bhugra, CEO and co-founder of Tibion. "With this technology, we have the potential to profoundly impact the lives of patients dealing with loss of muscle function due to surgery, stroke, or chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis."

The ETA program was created by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal to recognize the innovations and significant accomplishments of technology-oriented companies in Silicon Valley. Tibion, along with winners in additional categories, was recognized at an awards ceremony at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, on December 4.

About Tibion

Tibion is a privately held company located at NASA Research Park, Moffett Field, California. The company's mission is to develop smart medical devices and therapies that address the needs of musculoskeletal and neuromuscular deficiencies. Tibion's products are enabled by patented innovations encompassing a broad range of disciplines, including orthotics, biomechanics and embedded control systems. The company's first product, the PowerKnee, is a wearable bionic device for the leg to enhance rehabilitation and help patients improve muscle strength and function as well as to provide assistance with activities of daily living.

For more information, visit the Company's website at www.tibion.com.

URI biomedical engineer wins 2008 Delsys Prize

BOSTON and KINGSTON – University of Rhode Island faculty member He “Helen” Huang, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer & Biomedical Engineering, has been awarded the 2008 Delsys Prize.

The contest was established six years ago by Carlo J. De Luca – founder and president of medical technology companies Delsys Inc. and Altec Inc., and founding director of the NeuroMuscular Research Center at Boston University – to encourage innovation in electromyography (EMG), the study of the electrical signal generated by muscles as they contract. Those signals are the focus of Delsys, which designs, manufactures and markets EMG and electrocardiography (EKG) sensors and related technology.

“I am deeply honored by the recognition,” Huang, a Warwick resident, said in a statement. “The Delsys Prize is a significant milestone for scientists like me, as it inspires us to tackle the most challenging questions concerning the workings of the neuromuscular system.”

Her proposal – “Toward Neural Control of Artificial Legs: A New Strategy to Identify Locomotion Modes Using EMG,” seeking to develop data that someday may be used in developing a better artificial limb – was one of 50 entries by candidates around the world, whose submissions were evaluated by a panel of five experts from industry and academia. The winner gets more than recognition. Huang also will receive a Delsys Myomonitor IV 16-channel wireless EMG system with EMGWorks software – a package valued at $19,900 – for use in her work.

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Foot Prototype

LOUISVILLE Colorado- Tensegrity Prosthetics Inc. in Louisville has received a two-year $750,000 grant to continue the redesign and manufacture of prototypes of a flexible prosthetic foot.

Jerome Rifkin, founder of Tensegrity Prosthetics, said he will receive $415,000 of the Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health the first year.

He plans to spend the money on finishing the redesign of the prosthetic foot and then create small and large batches of prototypes for testing.

"I hope to be able to stabilize the product, increasing the efficiency and decreasing the number of falls incurred by amputees using current prototypes," he said. The prosthetic foot mimics the biomechanics of the human foot. Tests show it requires less energy to use, and amputees testing the beta version report more comfort and agility when walking.

The prosthetic is made of titanium, aircraft aluminum and steel-fiber rope. It bends like the normal foot and ankle, conforming to the terrain under foot, while providing a sense of being well-connected to the ground.

In 2005, Rifkin received a two-year, $200,000 SBIR grant from the NIH for research and has raised another $150,000 in venture backing.

He has received positive feedback from amputees who have participated in clinical tests of earlier prototypes, but the prosthetic's durability is still the challenge.

"Before I can begin manufacturing these, they need to be able to last for at least two years," he told the Boulder County Business Report in August. The durability problem is caused mainly because the prosthetic (foot) is so flexible, the very attribute that makes it appealing to amputees.

Rifkin received an IQ Award in August from the Business Report for his innovation.

Source

Iron Man

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum. That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward -- with a proud expression on his face -- as passersby stare in surprise.

"I never dreamed I would walk again. After I was wounded, I forgot what it's like," said Kaiof, who was injured while serving in the Israeli military in 1988.

"Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye to eye, not from below."

The device, called ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, a small Israeli high-tech company...READ MORE

The product, slated for commercial sale in 2010, will cost as much as the more sophisticated wheelchairs on the market, which sell for about $20,000, the company said.

The ReWalk is now in clinical trials in Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Centre and Goffer said it will soon be used in trials at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Pennsylvania.

Iron Man.

The movie grossed over 300 million dollars.
300 million means A LOT of people saw that movie.

You can piggyback ALL OVER THAT!

Watch ReWalk on YouTube.

Another day, another news story about Bionics...are you piggybacking?

Nice video. Thumbs up.

It's not a prosthetic.  Thumbs down.

It's a prosthesis.

SRO Gets Major WOM. Stan's Rodeo Ointment Goes to the Olympics!

SEATTLE, Aug 11, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Techalt, Inc. (Pink Sheets: TCLT) ("Techalt" or "Company") announced SRO will be dispensed at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Stanley Johnston, SRO inventor and former Major League Baseball trainer with 23 years experience stated, "In my experience, when a player had the option of choosing an ointment on the shelf in the training room, they would always choose SRO. The Neosporin and Triple Antibiotic Ointment would be still on the shelf virtually unused at the end of the season."

Stanley Johnston reports that Major Baseball League players have claimed that SRO not only protects the area from infection, but also would provide pain relief from dermal injury.

Dan Gribbon, an above-knee amputee (who now utilizes a prosthetic leg) stated "SRO is the only topical ointment that not only heals the sores I get from my prosthesis faster but the pain is diminished."

SRO's category is Neosporin, Triple Antibiotic Ointment and other topical ointments. Despite lacking scientific testing, testimony of athletes and consumers suggests SRO provides the same barrier of protection as other topical ointments, but its unique formula the users claim more rapid pain relief and faster healing of dermal wounds.

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Outcomes at the Center for the Intrepid - better than anyone expected.

Army Staff Sgt. Chad Jukes, a 23-year-old from Logan, Utah, talks about his prosthetic legs the way some men talk about the cars they drive or dream of owning.

He has one model for walking. It features a foot very similar to the one he lost as a soldier in Iraq. Another, designed for hiking, has a flexible black rubber disc on the end. A third ends in a foot that looks like it should belong to a small child. That variation gives him the rigidity he needs for rock-climbing....READ MORE

According to a study in the Dec. 9, 2004, New England Journal of Medicine, in World War II 30% of those who were injured died, compared with 10% of those hurt in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recent statistics from the Dept. of Defense suggest that the number is hovering at 13%.

As of May 1, 748 of those injured had lost at least one limb. Burns, vision loss and damaged hearing also are prevalent. Traumatic brain injuries mean that some need to relearn how to read and write.

Source

Robo-Arm On The News...Friday with Charlie Gibson

A New Hampshire man involved in testing a state-of-the-art robotic prosthesis will demonstrate the use of the "Luke Arm" on ABC's World News Tonight with Charles Gibson on Friday.
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A Leg To Stand On

From MIT News Office

"In the United States, a typical prosthetics specialist who fits artificial legs for amputees might handle 15 or 20 such patients a year, fitting them with custom-built legs that can cost upward of $6,000 apiece. Each patient then gets a series of follow-up visits to make sure the new limb was properly fitted.

But in India, the Jaipur Foot Organization handles that many patients every day in each of its local centers. The charity is the world's largest provider of prosthetics and has worked with about a million patients since being founded in 1975.

The JFO, also known as Bhagwan Mahavir Viklang Sahyata Samiti, is based in Jaipur, a city of more than three million people that is the capital of Rajhastan in northern India. The artificial legs they provide, based on a locally developed design, cost about $40, and the company has little time or funding for follow-up consultations, or for developing new methods.

A team of MIT students has been working on a new device that could greatly simplify the process of fitting these legs, producing a better fit while eliminating some steps in the process and reducing waste materials. The hand-powered system, which requires no external power, would also greatly simplify the fitting of legs in rural areas, where the present electrically powered fitting system requires bringing along a bulky generator.

The first step in fitting a leg is to make a mold of the person's stump to provide a precise fit. This is done by placing the stump into a container filled with tiny glass beads and covered with soft silicone rubber, and then creating a vacuum so that the beads seal tightly around the limb. This "negative" mold is filled with more glass beads (referred to as "sand") to form a positive mold--an exact replica of the stump--and the socket of the prosthetic leg is made to fit that replica. Alternatively, the two steps can be done with plaster of paris instead of the sand--a process that doesn't require electricity but does use heavy, non-reusable plaster.

The MIT system was designed under the auspices of the D-Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Mechanical engineering students Philip Garcia, Maria Luckyanova and Tess Veuthey, physics student Jessica Schirmer, and D-Lab instructor Goutam Reddy have been working on the project--some of them for more than a year.

The new fitting system they devised uses a handcrank to produce the vacuum, eliminating the need for electric power. And the same device can be used to produce both the initial negative mold and the positive mold that replicates the shape of the stump...."

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Arrest/Reverse PAD?

PLYMOUTH, Mass.--Harvest Technologies Corp. (www.harvesttech.com) announced today its President, will present at the Third Annual Stem Cell Summit, Hilton New York, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) approval to Harvest Technologies to commence a 48-patient ‘feasibility’ clinical trial to treat patients with Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI).

The BMAC System is a point-of-care device for concentrating a patient’s own (autologous) bone marrow stem cells in approximately 15 minutes. The study’s design provides for injecting these cells into the affected limb to reduce the potential for limb amputation.

It is believed that the injection of stem cells will arrest and possibly reverse the effects of a late-stage form of Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD). Patients who are being enrolled in this study have exhausted all other surgical options and are at extreme risk for major amputation. This U.S. clinical study is being led by Principal Investigator Mark D. Iafrati, M.D., Chief of Vascular Surgery at Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston. Six additional major university-based medical centers also are participating in the clinical study....

Berthold  Amann,MD, a specialist in vascular medicine at the BerlinVascular Center of Franziskus Hospital, recently completed a 60 patient end-stage (Fontaine IV Rutherford Grade III/Cat.5) CLI pilot study. All patients were injected with their own concentrated bone marrow stem cells. Of the 60 patients, 45 had been enrolled for more than six months. Of this group, 62% (28/45) avoided amputation, directly resulting from the stem cell therapy, according to Dr. Amann.

This is particularly impressive considering that 80% of these patients had already failed revascularization or had been scheduled for amputation. (The other 15 patients’ results will be reported after their six-month milestones are reached.)

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