PASADENA, California - If scientists at Huntington Medical Research Institutes have their way, pilots of the future may fly planes simply by looking in the direction they need to steer. They shouldn't blink.
Maybe it was the proximity to Hollywood, but the images invoked at Thursday's Futurist Conference - "Building a Global Gateway Through Wireless Technology" - were chock-full of fantasy figures from science fiction that doctors and researchers said are not so far off. But while RoboCop and Six Million Dollar Man references were tossed around at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, more down-to-Earth subjects were the focus of the discussions.
Huntington researchers are working on using a wireless device inside the human body. William Opel, executive director of Huntington, said the group has gained FDA approval for the Neurocybernetic Prosthesis, a device using surgically implantable electrodes that can suppress epileptic seizures.
Huntington worked with Cyberonics Inc. of Texas for several years to develop the implant, which stimulates the vagus nerve in the body every few minutes, and helps hinder seizures. Implanted under the skin in the chest area, the device has a wire electrode that then leads from the pacemaker up to the neck, and is connected to electrodes placed around the vagus nerve.
The device was developed with US$1 million in charitable contributions, about $7 million from the National Institutes of Health and later, some $60 million from venture capitalists and a public offering.
The device's most serious limitation is its relatively short battery life, about five years. The device's cost, $6,000, does not include the implant operation, and when the battery runs out, the device must be removed and a fresh one installed. But Huntington is working on making the device last 20 years, Opel said.
If an electrode array is arranged properly, Opel said, "you stereo-tactically position it; you can put electrodes directly into the brain." And while current cochlear implants that go on the surface of the brain don't work very well, improvements can be made, he added.
"The thing to do is to get localization of the stimulation," said Opel, adding that Huntington is continuing to develop the technology and has "got [electrodes] down to about the fifth the diameter of a fine hair insulated with a bevel tip."
Some investors in the audience wanted to know more about technologies used to hold and access medical information, such as smartcards used to create transportable medical records. But Eric Herfindal, a doctor and senior vice president of OnCare Inc., said there's a long way to go before that can work, especially in the United States.
Herfindal, whose company does work on cancer research and is creating sophisticated medical databases, said the problem with smartcards and medical records is that there aren't common standards when it comes to patient records and charts. Australia, which has a national health-care system, has done more work on medical smartcards.
Other audience members were concerned about "bad medical information" posted on the Internet.
David Gollaher, a doctor and president of the California Healthcare Institute, said despite such problems, "It's hard to imagine a regulatory system that wouldn't create more harm than good."
In the meantime, the Internet is filled with "scorched companies" that have tried to provide medical online services and failed. A bigger problem, Gollaher said, is that society hasn't quite figured out how to deal with some of the advances in molecular genetics and technology.
For example, he said, doctors can now tell women whether they have a high chance of getting breast cancer, but patients and doctors are still grappling with how to best use that information.
Another issue is what happens to such data. Should employers and insurance companies be able to get it? Gollaher said a proposed law in New Jersey would have made a patient's genetic information their personal property.
Numerous questions were also asked about new technology to restore vision to the blind and hearing to the deaf. Research is being done using microelectrodes to create prostheses that could help restore hearing. For the blind, experiments are being done to create an artificial horizon "and maybe vision."
"You're talking about making things in the human body more normal," one conference attendee asked. "What about the supernormal?''
Opel said work was being done with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to take signals from the spinal cord and mediate it with a hand-held device. This has begun with eye movement.
"So," one attendee pressed, "some day you might be able to fly or drive with your eyes?"
"Yes," Opel said. "It's not far off at all."
