Comment in Nature with Prof. Thomas Stieglitz
In a recent comment in the renowned journal Nature Medicine, Thomas Stieglitz, together with George Kouvas, Christopher Coenen, Dirk Hommrich, Bernice Simone Elger, and Fabrice Jotterand, discuss the societal responsibility toward patients who have received neural implants.
Neural implants make it possible to hear or see again, move paralyzed hands, or breathe regularly after severe spinal cord injuries. However, with their growing integration into the nervous system, cognition, and the identity of affected individuals, a central question arises: What happens if the company providing the implant suddenly disappears from the market due to financial reasons such as bankruptcy? Who then takes over technical support, and how can the functioning of the implants be ensured?
In their article Building resilience when neural implants are abandoned, the authors present strategies to ensure that neural implants remain not only medical success stories but also socially safeguarded.
Read the article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03772-x
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Stieglitz
Laboratory of Biomedical Microsystems
Department of Microsystems Engineering - IMTEK
University of Freiburg
BrainLinks-BrainTools Center
E-Mail: stieglitz@imtek.uni-freiburg.de
Kerstin Steiger-Merx
Representative Marketing & PR
Faculty of Engineering
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/203-8056
E-Mail: steiger-merx@tf.uni-freiburg.de