Biomechatronics Pioneer on Meeting the Needs of Women Patients

Hugh Herr is a driving force behind the creation of bionic limbs that emulate the function of natural limbs. His revolutionary work is in the emerging field of "Biomechatronics," a technology that marries human physiology with electromechanics. A double amputee himself, he is responsible for breakthrough advances in bionic limbs that provide greater mobility and new hope to those with physical disabilities. He currently serves as a Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab, and co-leads the Yang Center for Bionics at MIT.
Among the key aspects of the work being done at MIT is designing prosthetics that are specifically tailored to women's bodies. Dr. Herr explains how his team is meeting the needs of female patients in an area where the focus has traditionally been on the male anatomy. He speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. You're listening to Bloomberg
Business Week with Carol Masser and tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
It is time for Bloomberg Business Weeks Women's Health Segment.
This is where we focus on key issues, developing technologies
impacting the present and future of women's health around the world,
and in many ways we get into health generally. But
with us right now is a special guest, You her
He's a professor from the MIT Media Lab, co director
of the Kay Lisa Yang Center for Bionics at MIT.

(00:37):
Doctor Herr joining us from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hugh, great to
have you here with us. Thank you so much for
being here. Yeah, great to have you here. And if
you may your story, you know, my understanding is you
lost both your legs at seventeen. You're now helping others
that have gone through similar things and helping them in

(00:59):
their future. Could you just share a little bit about
maybe what happened and really how it's shaped what you're
doing today?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Gees Sure. As a young man, I was passionate about
mountain climbing, and when I was seventeen, I was in
a mountain climbing accident and suffered frostbite, and my medical
team gave up the fight to see my biological limbs
and they were amputated just below the knee. So today
I use very high tech powered prostheses to stand, walk
and run. So from that experience, I really realized how

(01:33):
limited current prosthetic technology was, and I really dedicated my
life as a young man to really advance the field
and enable extraordinary technology that will allow people to do
what they want again, to move again, well, any bodies
that they seek.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Right, And my understanding, you've been at the MIT Media
Lab for I think twenty one years. You have a
doctor of philosophy from Harvard. What has when it comes
to prosthetics since you joined the lab?

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah? Good, good question. So when I was first fitted
with process when I was seventeen, the prosthecees were made
of wood and foam and metal. They didn't have any
computational intelligence, no sensories, information, no actuation. And I said
to myself at the time, really, this is it. This

(02:27):
is what society can provide. Today, there exists computer control
proceses that adapt and are even connected to the human
nervous system that can convey human agency and ownership and
really restore physicality for humans.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
So if that's what exists today, then what's coming in
the next ten twenty years. What are you working on?

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, we're laser focused on integrating human biology with mechatronics.
Our key goal is to connect the human brain to
a built construct like an exoskeleton or a prosthesis. Our
mission is to restore physicality in the case of when

(03:15):
a person loses a limb, or in a case where
a person suffers a stroke and has paralysis or has
muscular weakness or joint damage, we can build these bonic
systems to restore movement.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
I am curious too, and you know, we've been doing
these segments for a while, and often we do any
kind of medical segment, we do think about the differences
between men and women. And I'm curious how what you've
come across when it's you know, developing technologies or outcomes
or prosthetics for men versus women. Are there differences? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Absolutely. In the case of limb amputation, amputations caused by
traumatic injury are predominantly performed on men. It's about in
the US, it's about seventy percent men and thirty percent women.
So because of that male dominance. The prosthetic technology seems

(04:11):
to be developed through the lens of needs that men
face and not women. So there's a tremendous need to
develop truly personalize prosthetic limbs that reflect the needs of
the individual and don't have that mile bias. And that's
that's a key area of research here to mit.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Is that male bias because of war in military or no.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I mean, it's typical for traumatic injury that there be
a male dominance. I won't make a joke there, but
whether it be spainal cord injury due to car crashes
or amputation, there's typically more men than women. So the

(04:56):
prosthetic industry needs to not only reflect the needs of men,
but also obviously of women. I have to say that
such tremendous focus for our research.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Now I've got four brothers, two sisters, and my brother's
man risk takers, and there were more accidents and runs
to the.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Emergency room and I didn't want to say that and broken.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Limbs and things unfortunately, So yeah, we definitely saw that.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
So, Hugh, I'm wondering about at what point, look, and
it's a question that we have when it comes to
any innovation. But we know that the work is always
ongoing and the work will always continue. But what is
the ultimate outcome and when do you think we're going
to be able to get there? You said, the goal
is to have this type of medical device be completely

(05:46):
controlled by the human and as close to somebody's limb
as actually possible. Can you give us a timeline when
you will say we have achieved this?

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah? Again, broadly, we're rebuilding limbs after amputation. We're also
augmenting limbs that are fully flesh and bones. For in
a case of a woman suffering a stroke, for example,
we want to restore the functionality of her leg as
an example, or a person with that suffers austerethritis, we

(06:19):
want to allow them to move again without pain. What's
the broad goalposts, what's the broad goal that you know
that people don't experience unwanted limitation, unwanted disability. Imagine a
world where when you lose a limb, or if you
spinal cord injury or suffered a stroke, or have joint disease,

(06:39):
that you can move again, you can move without pain,
you can dance again if you'd like. That's the world
that we seek.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
One thing I want to ask you, and certainly in
terms of I think about diabetes and how much that
impacts our population and that can lead to certainly difficulties
or amputation. Certainly with sure he towes all that stuff
that certainly impacts your mobility d LP one drugs. Is
that something you think about and how that might impact

(07:09):
some of what you are doing in that regard.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
I mean, any any strategy that you know in time
mitigates the probability of an amputation being required from a
severe diabetic state is of course fantastic. Yeah, In many
developed nations of the world, the cases of diabetes are

(07:39):
increasing precipitously and a lot of the some of the
cases are so severe that amputation results and prostheses are required.
So yeah, we can approach the problem in two ways.
A preventing a severe state of diabetes and in cases
when there is an amputation that occurs, developing extraordinary bionics

(08:03):
that enables a person to restore their movement capacity, their
cardivascular capacity, and maintain a high level of health.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well, we so appreciate getting time with you. We want
to talk to you about AI. But maybe we can
get you back here and continue this conversation because we
know technology and medical devices and healthcare overall. Definitely intersecting
Doctor Hugh hur, professor from the MIT Media Lab, co
director of the kay Lisayan Center for Bionics at MIT,

(08:32):
joining US from Cambridge