A "wonderland" of prosthetics

Last week I had a chance to spend time with the largest prosthetic company in the United States, Hanger, Inc. Each year, the company has many of its technicians from across the country meet in Las Vegas to learn about the latest in prosthetic and orthotic technology. They also have an expo filled with vendors that provide the pieces, parts, and tools that help their clients.

I spoke to the organization twice last week, once as a mom who is the parent of a limb different kid. I shared our adventures with prosthetics, the good and the bad. I also spoke to the group about the changing use of technology for senior citizens. Since I’m the social media trainer for AARP, I have a really cool perspective on helping educate everyone in being better users of the Internet.

A part of the Hanger Education Fair included an expo hall full of vendor products. Everything you would want to see for prosthetists and orthotists… from shoe inserts and back braces to prosthetic legs and arms. There were a lot of cool things but I wanted to share my favorites. When I told Jordan about the event, she told me she thought I was in a “wonderland.” It included:

1. A smaller, child-sized bebionic hand.
Jordan recently started telling me she wants a new hand with five fingers and this is as close as we could get. This hand is the smallest and most updated myoelectric hand available to the general public. It has multiple grips, the thumb is opposable, and I was even able to figure out some of its functions pretty quickly. I have complained for a long time that advanced prosthetics has ignored children, so it’s excited to see this hand released in the last month. (I also heard from Born Just Right readers that adults with smaller hands have been ignored as well, so this is a relief for them as well.)

2. All the cool tools
Our biggest success with upper limb prosthetic use is thanks to different tools that focus on specific tasks. I was excited to visit the TRS table that was full of its ever-expanding line of task-focused hands. Jordan’s bouncy hand and bike/kayak hand come from TRS. I also loved seeing tools like attachments for guitar picks, drum sticks and more options for swimming.

3. Pattern recognition
To me, this is the coolest advancement in prosthetics. I met with the president of Liberating Technologies, Inc. A person with an upper limb difference can work with a computer to tell an arm how to move. It has multiple sensors and instead of teaching a person who to use a myoelectric, he or she teaches the arm how to function. It’s basically a self-taught pattern to get specific movements.

Just this week, reporter Miles O’Brien showed how it works during a PBS NewsHour piece on upper limb prosthetics. It’s incredible to see the kind of success he had in a short amount of time. Obviously it isn’t perfect, but it’s a huge improvement. When Jordan was a baby, she would just yell at her myoelectric arm. It didn’t do what she wanted. We’ve avoided the technology since then. Check out how O’Brien got it to work:

  His report continues tonight. I look forward to seeing it.

4. Bling
I’m not sure how we missed the idea of gluing sparkly jewels onto prosthetics, but it’s very pretty. I met a super cool 12-year-old one-handed gymnast who has awesome bling on her activity arm. I also had a chance to spend time with Carrie Davis who works at Hanger and has used upper limb prosthetics since she was nine-months-old. She decorated her myoelectric hook arm with gorgeous crystals.

There were other lessons but these were my biggest takeaways. I hope to share some other thoughts and programs I learned about during the event next week. My head is spinning with potential for the world of upper limb prosthetics. I wrote many years ago that prosthetic technology would be greatly improved by the time Jordan is an adult. I think we are headed in the right direction.