WASHINGTON - Spurred partly by the needs of badly wounded war veterans, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would accelerate its review of a science-fiction-like robotic arm controlled by a computer chip on the brain.
The goal of the arm system is to make the use of prosthetic arms, hands and fingers seem almost natural by using a microchip implanted on the brain to record and decode signals to neurons that control the prosthesis.
In a dramatic video accompanying the FDA announcement Tuesday, the prosthetic arm wielded a pair of pliers and picked up a clothespin to demonstrate its ability to perform practical, everyday acts requiring dexterity and small motor skills.
The system, developed over the past five years at a cost of more than $100 million by the Pentagon's advanced technology research program, will become the first to be reviewed under a new FDA program designed to make promising medical devices available sooner.
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The new FDA review program will seek to nurture technology that has the potential to transform medical care, as well as the way it is delivered to patients.
"We must turn what has long been considered the 'valley of death' into the 'pathway to success,' " said Jeffrey Shuren, head of the FDA's office of medical devices.
The development and review of new drugs and devices has been so long and expensive that some critics have called it a graveyard for innovation.
The silver-and-black arm can rotate, twist and bend 27 ways, mimicking the action of a natural limb, said Geoffrey Ling, program manager for the Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program run by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency.
The arm is "truly transformative ... anthropomorphic, just like the arm each of us has," said Ling, who along with Shuren spoke on a webcast for reporters.
Ultimately, the device may benefit anyone who has lost the use of an arm - such as a stroke victim or a quadriplegic - but it's initially targeted to the estimated 800 servicemen and women who have lost use of one or both arms in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Advances in body armor and faster treatment by medical personnel have enabled more soldiers and Marines to survive serious wounds, but they also have increased the number of veterans in need of prosthetics.
The limb in Tuesday's demonstration video was controlled by an engineer.
"The next step is planting a chip on the brain," something that will be done within the next six months, Ling said.
