An Implant for Low Blood Pressure

 

September 2026 - View in browser

RESEARCH New Implant Targets Blood Pressure Swings After SCI If you live with a high-level injury, you know the standard answers to low blood pressure: an abdominal binder, compression garments, a pill. ONWARD Medical's ARC-IM takes a different route. A 16-electrode lead sits in the epidural space over a dense cluster of blood pressure neurons in the lower thoracic cord and stimulates it directly.   In a preliminary study of 14 people with SCI, turning the implant on raised blood pressure immediately and reduced both the frequency and severity of hypotensive symptoms. Learn more about the implant and how to submit for their latest FDA-approved trial. PRODUCTS Nobody Asked for a Crab Chair Toyota's Walk Me concept swaps wheels for four articulating legs, uses lidar and radar to read the ground and carries its rider up stairs. Ian Ruder, a C5 quad, would take one tomorrow. He also thinks it is the latest example of engineering inspiration porn: sleek, expensive, headline-grabbing prototypes that pull talented designers and corporate money away from the unglamorous problems — like a good indoor-outdoor power chair or a shower chair for step-in showers — that could make a real difference in wheelchair users’ lives. I Hate Flossing. I Tried Gfloss Anyway If you can't use your fingers, flossing typically means someone else's hands in your mouth and a lot of "is this the right spot?" NM Editor-in-Chief Ian Ruder, who hasn't flossed regularly in almost 50 cavity-free years, agreed to test Gfloss anyway. It's a quarter-sized piece of pink plastic strung with floss that you bite into place and move from gap to gap with your tongue. After 20 minutes of practice, he was doing a better job on most of his teeth than with any adaptive flossing device he'd tried. PERSPECTIVES Give Me the Tools to Live My Life, Not a System That Controls It Maria Matzik has spent more than 30 years advocating for people with disabilities. Her day-to-day life is also a real-world test of Medicaid's two home care systems, as she uses both traditional waivers and self-direction, where she hires and schedules caregivers herself. Matzik says the difference between the two systems shows up in the small stuff, like when a caregiver hits traffic and arrives 15 minutes late. With the traditional system, that means reports and administrative hoops with a care coordinator. With self-direction, she and her caregiver just fix it.   "We should never have to choose between prioritizing accountability and independence," she writes. "We should insist on both."

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