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The March Newsletter in Summary

By Nitish Thakor

This month we bring you a video clip and three articles we think you will find interesting and rewarding. Deep brain stimulation is beginning to bring life-changing benefits to victims of Parkinsons disease and other neurological disorders. In an interview, Dr. Jerrold Vitek, Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Minnesota, describes his vision for the future of this technology.

We also bring you original articles on:

  • work underway to allow elderly persons to safely live in their own homes,
  • developments in prosthetic hand technology appropriate for use in developing countries,
  • and an overview of IEEE standards support for eHealth.

In our featured video, Dr. Jerrold Vitek focuses on the rapidly advancing field of deep brain stimulation, sharing his view of the exciting possibilities he foresees in the next decade. He also discusses the importance of close collaboration between doctors and engineers in this field.

Subhas Mukhopadhyay, of Massey University, New Zealand, has been directing research into a platform that combines wireless sensors and telemetry to allow elderly persons living in their own homes to be monitored for their state of wellness, hopefully allowing them to live more safely. In An Intelligent Integrated Healthcare Platform for Wellbeing and Independent Living, Dr. Mukhopadhyay and Nagender Suryadevara report on this work.

In Robotics to the Rescue: Prosthetic hands help amputees in developing countries, Dr. Dinesh K Kumar, of RMIT University, Australia, reports on the need for, state of the art, and challenges facing the development of robotic hands for amputees in developing countries.

Bill Ash and Sam Sciacca bring us a review of current IEEE Standards relating to Medical Devices, and they show the importance of such standards to the rapid advancement of the field.

About the Newsletter

The IEEE Life Sciences Newsletter is a new initiative to bring forth interesting articles and informative interviews within the exciting field of life sciences every month. Please subscribe to the Newsletter to receive notification each month when new articles are published.

March 2013 Contributors

Nitish V. ThakorNitish V. Thakor is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, as well as the Director of the newly formed institute for neurotechnology, SiNAPSE, at the National University of Singapore. Read more

Jerrold L. VitekJerrold L. Vitek is Professor and Head of the Department of Neurology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Vitek received his medical degree as well as a doctorate of neurophysiology... Read more

Subhas MukhopadhyaySubhas Mukhopadhyay graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India with a Gold medal and received the... Read more

Nagender SuryadevaraNagender Suryadevara received his Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur, India in 1996... Read more

Dinesh KumarDinesh Kumar graduated from IIT Madras, and later did his PhD from IIT and AIIMS, Delhi. After a successful stint in starting and running a high-tech venture... Read more

Bill AshBill Ash is Strategic Program Manager for the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). He received his BSEE from Rutgers University School of the Engineering. Read more

Samuel SciaccaSamuel Sciacca is CEO of SCS Consulting, LLC. He is a registered Professional Engineer and an active Senior Member in IEEE and the IEC in the areas of utility automation... Read more