With biofeedback abilities unrivalled in current products, the Tensegrity foot (currently in research) promises an entirely different experience for people who have lost a foot. With a flexible mid-foot joint, and spring loaded heel, a natural and rhythmic walking gate has been the goal of the inventors and it looks like they’re well on their way to putting their best foot forward.

ARLINGTON, Va., June 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) applauded Congressional efforts to pass a bill introduced last week that will delay for at least 18 months the controversial and flawed Medicare competitive bidding program for home medical equipment and services. The bill, H.R. 6252, is titled the “Medicare DMEPOS Competitive Acquisition Reform Act of 2008.”

ReEnabled has consistently touted the computer gaming world as the birthplace of technologies which will drastically change the landscape of existence for the profoundly disabled. Yet more credence is given to this idea with the latest release of a mind-controlled computer game, using fairly commonly available parts and software.

Promising new research conducted by some, well, rather renegade scientists at Johns Hopkins suggests that MS may be reversible!

One can’t help but understand this is driven by the increasing number of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with severe disability which renders them useless to their former employer, the US Military. However, the end result is that people who may have been formerly overlooked, without a war to spur initiative, may benefit. About.com offers a comprehensive and insightful look at President Bush’s initiative.

In yet more research about nerve cell regeneration at the molecular level, scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have discovered that there is a way to activate stem cells to begin repairing damage around them. EurekAlert reports.

Promising research shows that intensive locomotor training in children can reverse disabling spinal cord injury.

A new report shows that a non-ambulatory (unable to walk or stand) child with a cervical spinal cord injury was able to restore basic walking function after intensive locomotor training. The case study, published in Physical Therapy (May 2008), the scientific journal of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), evaluated the effects of locomotor training in a 4 ½ year-old-boy, who had no ability to walk following a gunshot wound sixteen months earlier.

Researchers at University of Massachusetts Amherst have created a robotic arm with true learning ability and artificial intelligence. This is truly a breakthrough as part of the problem with robotic helpmates has always been the need to program them for every eventuality that could be encountered. Garbage in; garbage out. Newswise reports.

Dana Blankenhorn, of ZDNet, registers an opinion on what the war has done for assistive technology and what assistive technology has done for veterans. Good read, nice discussion.

Researchers at the University of Alabama Birmingham have been extensively testing the OtisKnee Custom Fit Knee Replacement system. In 19 of 25 users hospital stay was shortened significantly, and patients were walking unassisted within 6 weeks.