Rerouting the nervous systems of injured warfighters may sound like the sole purview of medical practitioners, but on July 26, a research foundation appealed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for help in the process. David Hankin, the CEO of the Alfred Mann Foundation, presented at the combined FCC/Food and Drug Administration (FDA) joint public meeting, “Converged Communications and Health Care Devices Impact on Regulation,” that was held in Washington DC. There, he gave a presentation on novel wireless microstimulator and microsensor devices that hold the potential to restore limb movement by stimulating the muscles of stroke or spinal cord injury victims.
According to the foundation, it has submitted a request for secondary use of four bands of wireless spectrum for use in microstimulator and microsensor devices, and the request is pending before government regulators. The ability to use wireless frequencies is necessary to transmit signals from a wearable control unit to the implanted microstimulators to restore movement. The foundation stated that its battery-powered implantable microstimulators and microsensors can be controlled and monitored up to 100 times a second via wireless radio communication. The speed of this radio communication is the key to the system’s potential to enable patients to regain use of their otherwise paralyzed limbs. The foundation designed the process of implanting the devices to be a simple injection performed as an office procedure, eliminating the need for a costly outpatient surgical procedure. Later this year, a clinical study is slated to commence that will use the foundation’s microstimulators to treat hemiparesis in war veterans who have suffered a traumatic brain injury.
“Breakthroughs in microstimulator technology made over the past decade by Mann Foundation scientists and others have resulted in implantable devices that may offer hope to many veterans returning today from Iraq and Afghanistan with spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries, but the use of these devices requires access to the coveted bands of wireless spectrum controlled by the DoD [Department of Defense] and ultimately the FCC,” Hankin said in a press release. “This is an important meeting as the Alfred Mann Foundation continues its efforts to make this technology available to the patients who may benefit most-injured warfighters and other Americans suffering from traumatic brain injuries, stroke, and spinal cord injuries. We are heavily engaged in spotlighting the societal need that exists and further seek to demonstrate that the microstimulator devices can harmoniously share spectrum with vital governmental systems that are important to our national security.”
