Making Prosthetics More Lifelike Scientists and Surgeons Team Up to Make Life Easier for Amputees
Jonathon Schofield, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering UC Davis
Wilsaan Joiner, Ph.D. Professor Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior Neurology UC Davis
By Amy Quinton
David Brockman, a retired CalFire captain and avid outdoorsman, built a deck in the backyard of his home last year, without the use of his dominant right hand, which he lost in an accident. The prosthetic hand he used instead was a crude but functional steel hook-and-harness device. Brockman has tried other artificial limbs, including a high-tech prosthesis called a myoelectric. It looks like a hand and works by using electrical signals from muscles in the forearm. But that one just didn’t work for him. “It’s uncomfortable, and it doesn’t function well,” Brockman said. “It looks nice. It’ll open and close, and I don’t have to wear a harness. But to be what I am — very physical — and to be outside working in the yard, raking, doing things like that, it doesn’t work.” Rejecting his myoelectric wasn’t unusual. Despite the advancements in robotics and other high-tech prosthetics, a recent study found that 44% of arm amputees abandon their devices. “Even though there’s amazing dexterous devices that can move in all sorts of ways and look similar and operate similar to an intact limb, being able to tell all of that robotic system how to move and what you want it to do is really where a big barrier is currently in the field,” said Jonathon Schofield, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis and PI of this UC Noyce Initiative-funded project.
Clifford Pereira, M.D. Associate Professor Surgery UC Davis
Andrew Li, M.D. Associate Professor Surgery UC Davis
COMPUTATIONAL HEALTH
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