Can prosthetics be intelligent?

"Intelligent prosthetics are prosthetics that perceive their surroundings via sensors. Based on these perceptions, they then adapt their functions appropriately to meet the patients needs,” explains professor Arndt Schilling, head of research and development at the clinic for trauma surgery, orthopaedics and plastic surgery at the University Medical Center Göttingen. He is one of the more than hundred international speakers at the Medica Connected Healthcare Forum.

The forum will focus on personalised medicine for the treatment of chronic diseases and health monitoring to match, among other topics. ResMed, for example, offers solutions for sleep apnoea as well as non-invasive ventilators for home use.

Korean company Ybrain uses neurostimulation to treat depression. Ybrain has developed the Mindd headband which emits mild electrical impulses to the frontal lobe of the brain. This shocks the frontal lobe out of its depressive inactivity (depression is associated with inactivity in this region of the brain). The system is connected to a smart phone app which allows users to evaluate the intensity of their depression.  

On 13 November everything at the forum will revolve around smart patches. Examples include TracPatch. This allows patients’ progress to be tracked after an operation. It records agility for example and measures body temperature to give an indication on inflammations, making this an ideal device to use for training purposes or in mobilisation therapy after an operation.