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<h1 style="color: #000 !important;">What's New</h1>
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<p><img src="/uploads/548a3e5560b12_1102.JPG" unselectable="on"></p><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/bionics/powered-prosthetic-legs-work-better-by-tracking-emg" target="_blank">Powered prosthetic legs work better by tracking EMG</a></h4><p>By Emily Waltz Posted 9 Jun 2015 | 21:00 GMT</p><p>Photo: Whill</p><p><img src="/uploads/557e23b26fc6d.jpg" unselectable="on"></p><p>Powered prosthetic legs work better when guided by electrical signals generated by the muscles, says <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2015.4527">a report published today</a> in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The findings suggest that bionic legs that rely on mechanical sensors to control movements would be greatly improved by the inclusion of electromyographic (EMG) data and the algorithms that interpret them.</p><p>In the study, teams from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University tried out their system on seven people with above-knee amputations. Each participant was outfitted with 9 EMG sensors on their thighs and hips that were connected to a computer. The participants wore a prototype knee-ankle prosthesis powered by 13 mechanical sensors that measured inertia, load, position, angle, acceleration, velocity and torque of the knee and ankle joints. The prosthesis was developed by <a href="http://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/bio/michael-goldfarb">Michael Goldfarb</a>, a mechanical engineering professor at Vanderbilt University.</p><p><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/bionics/powered-prosthetic-legs-work-better-by-tracking-emg" target="_blank">Read more</a></p><p><img src="/uploads/54ad19735dcd3_1102.jpg" unselectable="on"></p><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/diabetes-has-a-new-enemy-robopancreas" target="_blank">Diabete has a New Enemy : Robo-Pancreas</a></h4><p> By Philip E. Ross Posted 27 May 2015 | 21:00 GMT</p><p><img src="/uploads/557e262abb038.jpg" unselectable="on"></p><figcaption>Photo: David Yellen</figcaption><figcaption><strong>Blood Sugar, Online:</strong> Brian Herrick tracks the ups and downs of glucose in his bloodstream with a Dexcom system—a skin-hugging sensor that communicates via Bluetooth with a handheld monitor</figcaption><p><strong>The first great wonder drug</strong> was insulin, the blood-sugar-regulating hormone that was isolated in Canada nearly a century ago. The before-and-after <a href="https://speakingofresearch.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/diabetes1.jpg">pictures still astound:</a> a skeletal wraith on the left, a rosy-cheeked child on the right.</p><p>But the promise of insulin has yet to be fulfilled. Normally, the pancreas, an organ near the liver, secretes insulin to control the concentration of glucose in the blood. In patients with type 1 diabetes—once known as juvenile diabetes because it’s usually diagnosed in children—the pancreas makes no insulin of its own, so those with the disease must work hard to mimic that organ’s function. If blood sugar goes too low, the patient faints; if it goes too high, it poses long-term risks to the eyes, nerves, and arteries. So several times a day the patient must prick a finger to test blood sugar, make a calculation based on planned meals and exercise, and adjust the injection of insulin to account for it all. The burden of self-management goes on night and day.</p><p><img src="/uploads/557e26a79b075.jpg" unselectable="on"></p><figcaption>Illustration: James Provost</figcaption><p>In recent years, pumps have become smaller, more reliable, more programmable, and more comfortable, using ever-finer pipettes, which the patient inserts through a slightly larger needle. Continuous glucose monitors were first approved a decade ago, and they are beginning to replace the finger-prick method, now that improved coatings and other engineering details have allowed patients to keep their superthin electrochemical sensors under the skin for seven days. “I’ve had this one in for eight,” says Herrick.</p><p>The first machine worthy of the name of artificial pancreas was <a href="http://newsroom.medtronic.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=251324&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1859361">Medtronic’s Minimed 530G</a>, which went on sale in the United States in 2014. It stops the flow of insulin when the patient’s blood glucose falls below a set point. Then, in January, Medtronic began <a href="https://www.medtronic-diabetes.com.au/insulin-pumps/640g">selling the 640T;</a> like the system Herrick tested, this system stops the insulin when its algorithm merely predicts that the patient’s blood sugar will drop. It’s on the market in Australia and is set to sell in Europe later this year. In the United States, the clinical trials are just getting under way.</p><p><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/diabetes-has-a-new-enemy-robopancreas" target="_blank">Read more</a></p><h4></h4><h4></h4>
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