Abstract
This paper summarizes an article discussing the benefits of a particular advancement in the treatment of spinal cord injuries: neural interface technologies. It gives a summary of the main points of the article and the impact of this advancement on health care provision, as well as discussing two advantages and two disadvantages of this particular medical advancement.
One of the greatest challenges that faces the medical field of spinal cord injury treatment is to restore to the patient function and movement of the limbs. This article, after discussing the limitations that apply to traditional treatments focusing on the repair of the site of injury, provides an explanation and analysis of advances in an alternative approach: neural interface technologies.
The article focuses specifically on the advances experienced as a result of Brain Machine Interface (BMI) treatment and limb reanimation through electrical stimulation, describing the way these technologies have helped to solve the issues surrounding traditional treatment methods. The article highlights the significant impact these advances have had on health care, enabling health care providers to return greater levels of autonomy to these patients (Lobel and Lee, 2014).
One clear advantage of this new approach to spinal cord injury treatment is that it solves some of the issues that attached to more traditional methods of treatment, affording a high level of success at restoring limb function to the injured person. At the same time, the article highlights the fact that because these systems are still in the early stages of development, they offer unique opportunities to both health care providers and patients to feedback results and tailor the design, performance and operation of these systems to the real and proven needs of patients. A significant disadvantage of these systems, however, is their inherent invasiveness which carries greater risk of infection and damage for the patient. The article also highlights the fact that although the newness of these technologies offer advantages in terms of customising design and function, it also offers disadvantages in terms of the unknown risks and side-effects of such treatments.
Overall, these advancements in spinal cord injury treatment stand to have a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of health care provision in this field; this article makes clear the benefits of neural interface treatments to patients and healthcare providers alike.
- Lobel, D. A., and Lee, K. H. (2014, May). “Brain Machine Interface and Limb Reanimation Technologies: Restoring Function after Spinal Cord Injury through Development of a Bypass System.” Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 89 (5), 708-714. Retrieved from: http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(14)00145-1/fulltext.
