10.17 - Medical Bionics

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Abstract

We review the basic fundamentals of medical bionics, implantable devices such as heart pacemakers that help control rhythmic heart activity, and cochlear implants (bionic ears) that provide hearing for the severely or profoundly deaf. Design considerations for medical bionics are examined, including the principles of electrical stimulation of neural tissue; tissue response to chronic implantation; strategies for safe electrical stimulation; and the criteria for clinical devices. We then review a number of prostheses with long histories of successful clinical application, before describing some of the new devices currently within the development pipeline. Although far from exhaustive, this overview is designed to provide the reader with a glimpse into the clinical achievements and the exciting future of medical bionics.

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James Fallon did not always plan a career in medical bionics research, but his studies at Monash University including a BSc (Physiology), BE(Hons) (Electrical and Computer Science), and a PhD (Biomedical Engineering) have provided him a broad background in a range of relevant areas.

After finishing his studies in 2002, James got his first taste of cochlear implant research during a brief period working for Professor Robert Shepherd (now director of the Bionics Institute). However, before embarking on his current research direction, he moved to Sydney to work at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute as a research fellow; here he studied a range of phenomena related to our sense of touch. Since 2005, he has been working at the Bionics Institute, where he is currently a Senior Research Fellow, studying the protective and plastic effects of chronic electrical stimulation in relation to both cochlear implants and, more recently, bionic eyes.

Hugh McDermott is the Deputy Director (Research) at the Bionics Institute, and holds an honorary appointment as Professorial Fellow at The University of Melbourne. He is an Elected Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He has 30 years of experience in sound processing, electronic design, and perceptual research.

Hugh is an author of 5 book chapters, over 100 full-length journal articles, over 100 conference publications, and more than 50 invited presentations. He is a named inventor on 10 granted patent families and over 15 further patent applications. Several of his inventions have been translated into successful commercial products including the Speak/ACE sound-processing schemes for cochlear implants and the frequency-compression scheme for acoustic hearing aids, known as SoundRecover, which improves the perception of high-frequency sounds and thereby increases speech intelligibility.

Rob Shepherd was appointed the Director of the Bionic Ear Institute and Professor of Medical Bionics at the University of Melbourne in 2006.

He has 30 years of experience working in the field of medical bionics with particular emphasis on cochlear implants and retinal prostheses. His research includes the preclinical safety and efficacy studies used by Cochlear Ltd. as part of their successful FDA submission in 1985. His subsequent research on the effects of pediatric cochlear implantation contributed to the FDA approving the cochlear device for use in children as young as 2 years of age in 1990.

He has expertise in both in vitro and in vivo biosafety and infection studies, chronic electrical stimulation, histopathological and electrophysiological techniques, novel drug delivery techniques, brain plasticity, experimental surgery, and electrode design. He has published more than 170 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and given over 160 presentations at national and international conferences including 60 as an invited speaker. He is a Chief Investigator on more than $55 m of peer-reviewed grants including funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Australian Research Council, and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

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