The Los Angeles Times reports incredible news for veterans and those with prosthetic limbs. A high-tech new prosthetic arm is going get fast tracked through the Food and Drug Administration's approval process.
The system, using a brain-implanted microchip, is meant to provide 'near-natural' functioning of the arm, hand and fingers. The prosthesis will be evaluated in a new FDA program that gives priority review to breakthrough medical devices.The FDA and DARPA have a briefing scheduled for later today to announce this new medical device "Innovation Pathway." You can see a few more pictures of the prosthetic arm on the FDA's Flickr page.
The arm system, developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, uses a microchip implanted in the brain to record and decode signals to neurons that control muscles linked to the prosthesis.
