Shattered Nerves: How Science Is Solving Modern Medicine's Most Perplexing Problem

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Iowe a deep debt of gratitude to numerous patients and researchers who gave unstintingly of their time to share their research, personal experiences , excitement, successes, and disappointments relative to their involvement in the highly promising field of neural prosthetics. The patients, on whom many of the experimental systems discussed in this book have been and are being tested, provided me with immeasurable inspiration. They have quite literally given themselves up to the research and to a person have demonstrated true nerve, altruism, optimism, and even cheerfulness in circumstances that would bring many a lesser person to despair. They spoke of their circumstances, their emotions, and the research they have volunteered to participate in with complete candor and honesty, something I greatly respect and appreciate. Those volunteers I would like to thank are James W. Jatich, Jennifer S. French, Harold Churchey, Connie Schoeman, Marilyn Davidson, Molly Brown, Holly S. Koester, Ronnie Rainge, Maria Zaccaro, Scott Hamel, and Ryan McLeod. And a special thanks to the late Michael Pierschalla, who provided a wealth of information and inspiration and who died far before his time. Similarly, the many physicians, engineers, and scientists I have had the privilege of speaking and meeting with during my research for this book have impressed me as sincerely committed individuals who care more about their work and the good it can do for the disabled than the greater amount of money they could likely make otherwise, something rare and admirable. I would like to especially thank F. Terry Hambrecht, who, by dint of his own drive and intellect, provided much of the impetus to advance the field of neural prostheses to the point it is today. Terry, who co-founded and headed xii Acknowledgments the National Institutes of Health’s Neural Prosthesis Program until his 1999 retirement, gave generously of his time and knowledge during my years of research for this book and was kind enough to review and critique the manuscript. Others deserving of special mention for spending many hours being interviewed by me, either in person or over the telephone, and in some cases both, and for responding promptly and thoughtfully to my follow-up queries, are William Heetderks, who was Terry Hambrecht’s deputy and then succeeded him as director of the NIH Neural Prosthesis Program; Robert V. Shannon of the House Ear Institute; P. Hunter Peckham, J. Thomas Mortimer , Graham Creasey, Ronald J. Triolo, Kevin Kilgore, and Dustin J. Tyler, all of the Cleveland Functional Electrical Stimulation Center; Giles Brindley, a British physician and inventor; John P. Donoghue of Brown University and Cyberkinetics; Richard A. Normann of the University of Utah; Donald K. Eddington of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary; Douglas B. McCreery of the Huntington Medical Research Institutes; Jonathan R. Wolpaw of the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center; Philip R. Troyk and Michael Davis, of the Illinois Institute of Technology; Mark Humayun, Gerald E. Loeb, and Theodore W. Berger of the University of Southern California and the Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems Center; Robert Greenberg of Second Sight; and Richard A. Andersen of the California Institute of Technology. I would also like to thank Arthur Caplan of the Center of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania; Thomas H. Murray and Mary Ann Baily of the Hastings Center; Joe Schulman of the Alfred E. Mann Foundation; Kensall D. Wise of the University of Michigan; Alan Chow of Optobionics; Mary Buckett of the Cleveland Functional Electrical Stimulation Center; Philip R. Kennedy of Emory University and Neural Signals, Inc.; Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Sharona Ho√man of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Miguel Nicolelis of the Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University Medical Center; and Timothy R. Surgenor of Cyberkinetics. A special thanks goes to the editorial sta√ at Johns Hopkins University Press, who, to a person, were a delight to work with. I would like to especially recognize the e√orts of my editor Vincent J. Burke, who stood four- Acknowledgments xiii square with me on the road to publication of this volume. Hugh Cahill did an excellent job correcting technical errors, and Michael Baker tightened my prose without altering my voice. Both Cahill and Baker used a light touch and saved me from some embarrassing errors. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Brandon and Sarah for the books, to Abbey for the conversation and artistic input, to Scott for the assistance...