You know how annoying it is in winter when gloves make it hard to use your iPhone? Imagine what it’s like for people with prosthetic hands. Taking off a glove doesn’t solve the problem. Touch Bionics’ iLimb technology is working to solve this small problem as well as larger ones for people with upper limb amputations.
Leimkuehler’s Prosthetics and Orthotics hosted a patient information session last week at their Cleveland clinic. The event focused on new iLimb technology from Touch Bionics and helped patients and their families understand the new upper-limb technology that is available.
Regional account manager of Touch Bionics, Jeremy Hiett, said the company’s goal is to create new technology that allows people to get around almost as if they weren’t wearing a prosthetic.
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The iLimb system includes Grip Chips, which sense a person’s surroundings and automatically change hand position based on motion sensing, and Touch Screen Covers, which allow the user to unlock touch-screen devices with their prosthetic.
Touch Bionics hands have 24 grip patterns, while their “digits” or individual fingers have 12 grip patterns.
Two users of iLimb technology, Aimee Copeland and Ryan Rosenow, were at the information session to demonstrate their prosthetics. Ryan was born without his right hand and spoke to the group while wearing his iLimb device. Hiett said he was a natural at using residual muscles in his wrist to operate the device.
Even though he loves it, Ryan said he wishes there was more durability with the iLimb technology. He wishes the device could handle water and survive a little more abuse with activities like rock climbing.
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After he demonstrated his device, the little sister of a Leimkuehler patient raised her hand and asked, “Can my brother have an arm?”
Hiett and the Leimkuhler crew said her brother could be fitted with iLimb technology when he reaches his teen years. Because kids grow so quickly, this kind of technology would be best used once growth slows or stops.
With iLimb technology, Touch Bionics patient Aimee Copeland, who lost both hands and a leg in a zip-lining accident, says,
“Once I have knowledge and understanding, I can pretty much do anything the iLimbs are capable for. I use them for mostly everything.”
With all of this new technology available to patients, I asked Gregg Leimkuhler, who is finishing his Prosthetics residency at Leimkuhler’s and is ready to take on the family business, if 3D-printed prosthetics was another option for patients. Leimkuhler said even though the 3D print business is big right now, the technology is too rough and just isn’t there yet for prosthetics.
The iLimb technology is battery-powered and has a life of about 13 to 14 hours before it needs to be recharged. Ryan told the group he went two full days without charging his device before it died on him the third day. Hiett and Touch Bionics recommend charging the devices every night to ensure they don’t die when you need them.
Leimkuhler’s fits patients with Touch Bionics products as well as other prosthetics. With the new iLimb technology, Aimee says, “I don’t have to sacrifice aesthetics for functionality.”
I talked to some of Leimkuehler’s current patients. Wayne described life with his prosthetic:
“It wouldn’t be my first choice, but I made do with what I have. For most people what you can’t do is what you tell yourself you can’t do. The biggest obstacle you have is if you convince yourself you can’t do anything.”
Joan, another patient, who was born without her right hand, is an occupational therapist. She says that her condition motivated her to go into occupational therapy. She got a cosmetic prosthesis when she was 17.
Joan said she was teased a lot in school because of her prosthetic. “It was hard. It still is kind of hard,” she says. Even though the aesthetics of her current prosthetic appeal to Joan, she admits that tasks like pushing her patients in wheelchairs takes a toll on her prosthetic, and there’s a lot of upkeep.
Joan is intrigued by the iLimb technology because she’d be able to sense what she’s touching and have the ability to hold a real grasp on something.
