I was only seven, but in 1974, I remember watching the Six Million
Dollar Man on television. The main character, Steve Austin was an
astronaut who sustained life-threatening and life-altering injuries in
an accident and his broken limbs and damaged eye were replaced by
bionic prosthetics. The opening narration said, “Steve Austin,
astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We
have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first
bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before.
Better, stronger, faster." (Six Million Dollar Man, Opening Narration,
n.d.) a Fast forward to 2020, I am working at an insurance company,
and I receive a call from a provider in Southern California who needs a
single case agreement to cover the cost of replacing a patient’s
myoelectric arms. The patient lost their arms because of diabetes and
as a computer programmer, the myoelectric prostheses allowed them
to continue working as a senior executive at a computer company.
The cost for the two new prostheses was $280,000. a Prigge (2021)
explained that myoelectric prostheses have motors and batteries on
board to power the movement of the devices that are ultimately
controlled by input from electrical signals generated by muscles in the
residual limb. “Technologies now exist to make this even more
intuitive for individuals to control multiple features in an arm such as
grasping patterns in a hand, wrist rotators, elbows and even shoulders
(Prigge, 2021).” Peterson (2020) described how targeted muscle
reinnervation (TMR) procedures can help alleviate pain and provide
amputees the ability to better control myoelectric prostheses. We
really do have the technology, now!
a a a Lepton’s (2011) description of a future state where
procedures are performed by physicians holographically, seems far-
fetched but the FDA has cleared a system that creates accurate,
three-dimensional holograms of a patient’s organs, giving surgeons a
new opportunity to interact with their anatomy and orient
themselves prior to any procedure (Hale, 2021). a Hale (2021)
explained that RealView Imaging’s Holoscope-i assembles its
holograms from CT and 3D ultrasound scans and projects them from
a device suspended over the surgeon’s head. Hale (2021) concluded
that there is a rapidly growing need for advanced visualization
solutions in the world of medical imaging, driven by the huge trend to
perform minimally invasive procedures that exclusively rely on
imaging technologies. One can imagine that holographic technology
can increase patient safety and outcomes by providing surgeons with
dynamic a preview of complex patient anatomies in advance of
surgery.
References
Hale, C. (2021, August 2). FDA clears 3D hologram tech for 'science-
fiction' surgical planning. Retrieved May 29, 2022, from Fierce
Biotech: https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/fda-clears-3d-
hologram-tech-for-science-fiction-surgical-planning
Lepton, K. (2011). Future medical technology. Retrieved May 29, 2022,
from Future Technology 500:
https://www.futuretechnology500.com/index.php/future-medical-
technology/
Peterson, J. (2020, September 28). Introduction to targeted muscle
reinnervation. Retrieved May 29, 2022, from Arm Dynamics:
https://www.armdynamics.com/upper-limb-library/introduction-to-
targeted-muscle-reinnervation-tmr
Prigge, P. (2021, January 18). Introduction to myoelectric prostheses.
Retrieved May 29, 2022, from Arm Dynamics:
https://www.armdynamics.com/upper-limb-library/introduction-to-
myoelectric-prostheses
Six Million Dollar Man, Opening Narration. (n.d.). We can rebuild him.
Retrieved May 29, 2022, from TV Tropes:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeCanRebuildHim
