In The News

CINCINNATI (Josh Knight) -- A local company made it possible for severely disabled veterans to communicate.

Its bionic technology called "Neuroswitch." It's changing lives for those who can't speak and for their families. It's more or less a simple sticker; put it on and the small electrodes can actually sense the electrical signals the brain is trying to send to muscles, even if the muscles don't work.

Founder and CEO of Control Bionics, Peter Ford, said, "It measures the pattern of the way a person fires a signal. So if they're fatigued and want to make an on command, make the computer do something, the computer will recognize that different shaped pattern in their signal."

For severely disabled veterans or for those suffering with ALS, the technology can be life-changing.

Representative Brad Wenstrup, (R)-Ohio, said, "To stay engaged, to be animated and allows people to interact with their family, their physicians and just with society in general and I think that's an exciting thing to be able to see that."
    
Wenstrup served two tours in Iraq as a combat surgeon, “You have a population that is willing to try something new and to engage in something like this and it gives them a chance to be part of society and their family." 
    
He said within VA Healthcare, they can make big strides, “We have opportunities to do good things out of everything bad. There's a chance to do something good. Not every VA is the same, but this gives us the opportunity to become the best at something else and let it carry out to the civilian population as well."

Ford said enabling communication can save huge Healthcare costs.
    
The Cincinnati VA Hospital adopted one Neuroswitch about six months ago. He hopes they can make it the centerpiece for this technology.