Monday, April 25, 2005

Med Tech

Prosthetic promise

By Dyke Hendrickson

An MIT professor is planning to climb a wall in the Alps this summer as well as launch a new company as he provides proof that those with artificial limbs need not abandon the good life.

Hugh Herr is director of the Biomechatronics Group at MIT, and an assistant professor at the MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

His work in the design and manufacture of artificial limbs has received increased federal funding in recent months as a result of the needs of wounded solders coming back from Iraq.

Military administrators appear intent on developing improved prosthetics.

"The Veterans Administration and others are making funds available for research," said Herr, whose Cambridge lab has grown to about 20. "I appreciate that kind of interest but the goal remains the same, and that is to develop better devices to help people live more active lives."

Herr is among the nation's leaders in designing high-tech prosthetics, in part because he has real-life experience with the challenges of using artificial limbs.

Herr, a world-class mountain climber at the age of 17, and a friend were trapped in a snowstorm while ascending New Hampshire's Mount Washington in 1982.

The boys were rescued, but Herr suffered frostbite. Both legs were amputated just below the knee. He was fitted with prostheses, but discovered that they were not very comfortable and not very effective.

The story goes that Herr, who earned a bachelor's degree at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, went back to school to learn about how better devices might be developed.

He obtained a master's in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1993 and a doctorate in biophysics from Harvard five years later.

Despite his years in labs and libraries, he continues to be interested in the outdoors. And he is intent on providing himself with a full range of activity.

"I'm scheduled to be climbing a wall in the Italian Alps in July," said Herr, 40, "and at the moment it is frightening. But I have been climbing since I was a youngster, and I'm looking forward to using some of the devices we have developed."

In addition to trying out his own devices, the low-key scientist is making plans to further commercialize his work. Several of his products have been licensed by Ossur Corp., a medical devices company based in Iceland that acquired some of Herr's products from another company.

Now he is developing a business plan for the day that he and colleagues launch their own company. Herr holds half a dozen patents for prosthetic leg improvements. Among them are spring-loaded feet that store energy and provide thrust to the leg, and sockets cushioned with air for added comfort.

One of his key projects is developing an electronic knee that can analyze information about its environment and make adjustments on the fly.

Paul Harney, who operates the FDR Center for Prosthetics in Nashua, N.H., said Herr's research could be valuable for all patients.

"His work will enable not only runners to run faster but the average patient to walk better," said Harney, whose company distributes and fits artificial limbs.

"Better devices will help people get off a walker faster, and resume as normal a life as possible."

Industry analysts estimate that prosthetics and orthotics (braces) have become a $2 billion industry worldwide. Just how much income a company can generate, however, depends on reimbursement.

"Making high-tech devices is great but if the cost is prohibitive, then they can't help people," said Mark Ettlinger, a medical-devices consultant who is a co-founder of the Med Development Group in Waltham.

"If insurers will pay, then a lot of Hugh Herr's work will really help users out there."

A "high-tech" leg can cost close to $42,000, according to Harney.

Still, the cost of the technology of isn't holding back the efforts of Herr.

"I think that there will be a day when a runner with an artificial limb can run faster than a (regular) sprinter," he said.

"We are looking to add more power and functionality so that running swiftly is fully achievable for most users."

Marko Popovic, a researcher at the MIT Media Laboratory and a colleague of Herr's, said, "Hugh Herr's lab is developing remarkable technology.

"We are poised to enter a new era in prosthetics, and soon many amputees will be equipped with devices that will really help them get their lives back."