This week's column

War extends frontier on man-machine interface

War, while horrifically cruel, does spur technological advances, and not just in killing people. Nowhere is that seen better than in medical care of the wounded, especially those who've suffered amputations. Recent breakthroughs suggest that scientists are on the verge of redefining the human-machine interface, with significant repercussions for an aging global population.

A bit of history first, then some sense of the current challenge.

Artificial body parts (e.g., noses, ears, eyes) began appearing more than 4,000 years ago, with history recording in 500 B.C. that the first artificial limb belonged to a Persian soldier whose wooden foot replaced one that he himself had hacked off to escape chained captivity.

Read on at KnoxNews.
Read on at Scripps Howard.

Comments

[tammy swofford]

It will be the long term chronic care of brain injuries that will kick out butts in the end. We save the core with our body armor but the finer functions of the command center can be taken out in a moment with a blast impact moving through brain tissue. On the lower end of the scale, brain injury produces irritability and decreased coping levels. It can degrade reaction time from trigger to pull on the most basic weapon. Some of the subtle nuances of brain injury will be missed in this client demographic by those who have not worked in acute ICU environments with these individuals. It takes months and years within this subspecialty of medicine to recognize such things.

Having worked three years within a neuro ICU environment with a continuum from minimal to extensive and global type brain injuries, this is the greater concern for me as a professional.

Tammy Swofford, R.N. BSN