A new research program at the Bionics Institute in Australia aims to revolutionize how prosthetic limbs function and feel by connecting them to the human body. Max Ortiz Catalan, PhD, formerly an associate professor of bionics at Chalmers University of Technology and director of the Center for Bionics and Pain Research in Gothenburg, Sweden, joined the Bionics Institute and will continue his research there.
Ortiz Catalan has been reengineering osseointegrated implants to allow for bidirectional communication between the human nervous system and the prosthetic limb.
“My team and I are using surgical and engineering techniques to connect a patient’s prosthesis directly to their bones, nerves and muscles, creating a neuromusculoskeletal human-machine interface,” Ortiz Catalan told Hippocratic Post.
Bionics Institute CEO Robert Klupacs said Ortiz Catalan’s appointment at the Bionics Institute marks a new chapter in Australian med tech innovation and has the potential to improve healthcare outcomes worldwide.
