Another wayinformation technology is revolutionizing the medical service industry isthrough implantable medical devices.
For many years, people around the globeimproved human lives with contact lenses, hearing aids, and artificial jointsand limbs. With advances in technology, the focus has now turned to developingsmall implantable medical devices that can alleviate other problems.Implantable medical devices are made from metal, plastic, ceramic, or othermaterials.1Depending on the device, they can have different purposes: some are prostheticsand replace a biological structure, while “other implants deliver medication, monitor bodyfunctions, or provide support to organs and tissues.”2Additionally, some devices can be installed in the body permanently, like hipimplants, or temporarily and then removed when no longer needed, like screwsfor a broken bone.3The risks involved with using implantable medical devices include infections,bruising, pain, swelling, redness, as well as failure of the implant itself.4Currently, there is a wide variety of implantable medical devices, from screwsto breasts implants, cochlear implants, essures,5permanent birth control, phakic intraocular lenses, urogynecologic surgicalmesh implants, and many others.
In this part of the paper, however, we aregoing to focus on neural-electronic implants. The developmentof neural-electronic implants first required an understanding of how thedifferent parts of the neural system communicate with each other and how thedata is modified during this process in the form of electrochemical impulses.6Neural implants are technical systems, and mainly stimulate “the nervous systemwith the aid of implanted electrical circuitry or record the electricalactivity of nerve cells.”7And as a result, a two way exchange of the information is possible on manydifferent levels, such as “peripheral nerves which is in the spinal cord, orwith the brain.”8Apart from stimulating specific parts of a human’s nervous system,neural-electronic implants also monitor the electrical responses of nervecells. By doing so, they can improve the senses and physical reactions andmovements.9For instance, to bring back the intellectual function of a person, aneural-electronic implant has to collect data from one part of the brain,process it as our nerves would process it if they were working correctly, andthen deliver the results to another part of the brain—all the while avoidingthe damaged tissue.
10At the moment, the only option to insert an implant into a human brain is todrill a small hole through the skull and slide long, thin electrodes until theyreach their destination deep inside the brain.11Since the wires extend through the skull, there are high risks of infection andinternal bleeding, which could be fatal.12Scientists, doctors, and engineers still need to figure out a safer and morereliable way of inserting these devices into the human brain.13According toTransparency Market Research (TMR), implantable medical devices are going toexpand at a 4.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2016 and 2024globally.14This area will continue to be more innovative, creative, and common. Forinstance, there are more than 300,000 hearing-impaired people around the worldwho have cochlear implants.15These devices are built out of an external part, a microphone, which capturessounds, processes them, and uses the results to drive a set of electrodes thatstimulate the auditory nerve, approximating the naturally-occurring “output”from the ear.
16Other popular implants include retinal implants to help people with visionproblems. These involve the use of microelectronics and microchip electrodesthat are surgically implanted into the back of the eye (retina).17They work exactly the same as way as cochlear implants.18However, the retinal implants use a camera instead of a microphone and drivethe results to the eyes instead of the ears.19 Forpeople with Parkinson’s syndrome, neural-electronic implants are also commonlyused.20In this case, a thin electrode is inserted into the brain and connected by awire that runs to a battery pack underneath the skin.
21 Thedevice activates some of the pathways involved in motor control by sending electronicpulses into the brain.22As a result, the device reduces or even eliminates the symptoms of Parkinson’ssyndrome.23The new implants can also alleviate chronic neck and spinal pain for those whomsurgery cannot help. Spinal cord stimulation, or neurostimulation,24has two parts: a generator/receiver and a programmer/transmitter.25The generator is implanted near the spine and directs the electrical impulsesto the brain in order to interfere with the pain.26 Theprogram also allows for remote control of stimulation intensity.27 Many of us do not even recognizethat neural implants are revolutionary for our society.
Because of thesedevices, we have the potential to create a more physically and mentallyadvanced community. We are also achieving things that were impossible a fewdecades ago, like making blind people see, deaf people hear, and paralyzedpeople move their muscles again. Moreover, scientists and engineers are constantly working on memoryimplants as well.
However, we should ask ourselves: where are the limits? Willwe allow these implants to be inserted into a healthy body in the future toimprove memory, speed, intelligence, or sight? Can doctors be creators of anew, better human race and is the sky the limit? Or, should we create regulations?And, is there a possibility that governments could use the neural-electronicimplants to control their citizens in the future? These questions and theiranswers sound a little bit like science fiction, yet, about half a century ago,no one suspected that we would have access to a global network in the form of acomputer and cell phone. 1 “Download Product Code Classification Files”.FDA.org/medicaldevices. Food and Drug Administration.
4 November 2014.Retrieved 12 March 2016.2 “Implants and Prosthetics.” US Food and Drugs Administration, 24June 2015, https://www.
fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/ImplantsandProsthetics/default.htm.Accessed 28 Nov. 2017.3 “Implants and Prosthetics.” US Food and Drugs Administration, 24June 2015, https://www.fda.
gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/ImplantsandProsthetics/default.htm.Accessed 28 Nov.
2017.4 “Implants and Prosthetics.” US Food and Drugs Administration, 24June 2015,https://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/ImplantsandProsthetics/default.htm.Accessed 28 Nov. 2017.
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htm.Accessed 28 Nov. 2017.6 Elkholy, E. (2011).
Novel neurochip design implementingalopex for use in an automated deep brain stimulation system for parkinson’spatients. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 211. Retrieved fromhttp://search.proquest.com7 “Neural Implants .” Human Enhancement: Brain Chips,https://humanenhancementusingbrainchips.weebly.
com/neural-implants.html.Accessed 30 Nov. 2017.8 “Neural Implants .” Human Enhancement: Brain Chips,https://humanenhancementusingbrainchips.
weebly.com/neural-implants.html.Accessed 30 Nov. 2017.9 Chandler, David L. “Stretching theboundaries of neural implants.
” MITNews, 31 Mar. 2017,news.mit.edu/2017/stretching-boundaries-neural-implants-0331. Accessed 30 Nov.2017.10 Elkholy,E. (2011).
Novel neurochip design implementing alopex for use in an automateddeep brain stimulation system for parkinson’s patients. ProQuest Dissertationsand Theses, 211. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com11 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.”The Future of Brain Implants.” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar.
2014, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583.Accessed 30 Nov. 2017.12 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.”The Future of Brain Implants.
” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar. 2014,https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583.
Accessed30 Nov. 2017.13 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.”The Future of Brain Implants.” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar.
2014,https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583. Accessed30 Nov. 2017.14 “Implantable medical devicesmarket’s future growth.
” Today’sMedical Developments, 15 Mar. 2017,www.todaysmedicaldevelopments.com/article/global-implantable-medical-device-market-2024-31517/.Accessed 2 Dec. 2017.
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com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583. Accessed2 Dec. 2017.16 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.”The Future of Brain Implants.
” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar. 2014,https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583. Accessed2 Dec.
2017.17 “Retinal Implant Technology.” Fighting Blindness,https://www.fightingblindness.
ie/cure/retinal-implant-technology/. Accessed2017.18 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.”The Future of Brain Implants.
” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar. 2014,https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583. Accessed2 Dec. 2017.19 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.
“The Future of Brain Implants.” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar. 2014,https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583. Accessed2 Dec. 2017.
20 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.”The Future of Brain Implants.” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar. 2014, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583.Accessed 2 Dec.
2017.21 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.”The Future of Brain Implants.
” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar. 2014,https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583. Accessed2 Dec. 2017.22 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.
“The Future of Brain Implants.” TheWall Street Journal, 14 Mar. 2014,https://www.wsj.
com/articles/the-future-of-brain-implants-1394839583. Accessed2 Dec. 2017.23 Marcus, Gary, and Christof Koch.
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spine-health.com/treatment/back-surgery/spinal-cord-stimulation-chronic-back-and-neck-pain.Accessed 2017.26 Mehta, Neel. “Spinal CordStimulation for Chronic Back and Neck Pain.” Spine Health, 23 Sept. 2016, https://www.spine-health.
com/treatment/back-surgery/spinal-cord-stimulation-chronic-back-and-neck-pain.Accessed 2017.27 Mehta, Neel. “Spinal CordStimulation for Chronic Back and Neck Pain.
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