In Our Lifetime&#8230;

Early in 2007, shortly after I began working at The O&P EDGE , a U.S. veteran who had sustained a traumatic shoulder disarticulation amputation during the war in Iraq contacted me. He asked where he could get a permanent prosthesis—one that he could live, work, play, and sleep in; would provide full range of motion at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist; have five articulating digits; would look like his natural hand and arm; and be controlled by his thoughts. I referred him to several manufacturers of upper-limb prosthetic devices, but told him that unfortunately, I didn't know of a commercially available prosthesis that would meet all of his requirements. He sent me another message asking me how long I thought it would take for something like that to become available. "I just want to feel like I have my arm back," he wrote. I responded as helpfully as I could, telling him that I had heard rumblings about some early-stage research but that I didn't honestly know if such technology would be readily available in our lifetime. Turns out, it just might be. At the time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Revolutionizing Prosthetics (RP) programs were just getting started. In February 2006, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, announced it had received a $30.4 million contract to begin the first phase of Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009, with the goal of having a neurally controlled prosthetic arm and hand ready for clinical trials and U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in four years; and DEKA Research and Development Corporation, Manchester, New Hampshire, was on the verge of announcing it had received the $18.1 million Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2007 grant and was tasked with developing a working advanced prosthetic arm with a neural interface in two years. Ultimately, these projects proved too complex to meet DARPA's aggressive deadlines, but progress on both fronts has allowed development to continue. The O&P EDGE has reported on these projects every step of the way. In our ongoing coverage of the RP programs, Judith Philipps Otto brings us up to speed on these projects in her article " DARPA Arms Progress, Nurture Related Wonders ." DEKA's Gen 3 Arm won't be for everyone—and there will likely be detailed discussions about financial and reimbursement issues related to its availability—but its market readiness is an incredible example of what happens when great minds take on what many viewed as an impossible task. Thanks for reading.

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