Guest edited by I³R Clinical Trials Support Engineer, Hailey Dirrigl
When I played Division I volleyball at the University of Arkansas, injuries were a constant part of my life, including three major surgeries. Like many student-athletes, I often played through pain, spending hours in rehab before and after collegiate games and searching for treatments that could keep me on the court longer. I quickly learned that taking care of my body took a team—coaches, trainers, teammates, and family—working together to help me to continue competing at my best. That experience taught me the power of collaboration in medicine, a lesson that continues to shape my work today in convergence research, where progress depends on interdisciplinary teams coming together to solve ‘wicked’ problems.
After earning a master’s in biomedical engineering, I joined the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research (I³R) in 2023 as a clinical trials support engineer. I began assisting with the Neural-Enabled Prosthetic Hand (NEPH) system study—an FDA-approved, first-in-human clinical trial funded by the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health.
Unlike traditional prosthetics, the NEPH is a neuroprosthetic system designed to offer people with an upper limb amputation a sense of touch when they use their prosthetic hand for different tasks. It communicates signals from sensors in the prosthetic hand that are activated during the opening or closing of the hand or when the prosthetic fingers touch and grasp objects to a neurostimulator implanted in the arm above the amputation to activate specific nerves in the arm. This allows the person to feel touch through their prosthetic hand and accurately determine the amount of grip force it takes to hold something, as though these senses are coming from their fingertips. The surgery to implant the device, developed by I³R researchers, is performed in collaboration with surgeons from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
I help coordinate various aspects of our trials, from screening participants to supporting the experimental sessions that happen before and after the surgery in which we test usability of the NEPH system, perform exercises to understand the level of stimulation, among other things.
Neuroprosthetics aren’t a new concept. For example, the cochlear implant was once a radical concept tested in trials before becoming a global standard. What I³R is doing, however, builds on that legacy right here in Arkansas. It takes something necessary like a prosthetic and innovates on it to stimulate nerves so that a sensation that is gone could potentially be restored.
To bring medical device innovations to the public, it requires a team of people—not just the work of researchers and medical professionals, but the trial participants who help us understand how the system needs to work. I think of participants like Dewey Hickey, an Arkansan pastor who lost his arm in a bicycle accident and used a cosmetic prosthetic hand for several decades. He was featured in the University of Arkansas’ Short Takes video. Since receiving the NEPH system, he was able to “feel” his wife’s hand for the first time in years. New possibilities for interacting with the world opened in ways he never imagined, which was a remarkable thing to see. Dewey’s courage to take part in our trial, like that of all our participants, is what makes this kind of scientific progress possible. When we collect data in the trials, I think of how many individuals we might be able to reach if we are able to bring this innovation more widely: veterans who have lost limbs in combat, survivors of natural disasters, and others.
We’ve expanded to a second clinical trial site at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where our partners in Bethesda, Maryland can reach even more potential participants—specifically veterans and their families—and that momentum affirms what I’ve seen firsthand: Arkansas is a leader in neurotechnology research that can be deployed across the country. In fact, so far, several people—most from Arkansas—have received this pioneering system. Like the University of Arkansas’ land-grant mission, our work is focused on enhancing people’s lives. This is why research matters.
As an athlete, I learned that no victory happens alone. Success comes from teams built on trust and willingness to help one another, especially when the outcome is uncertain. Clinical trials are no different. Our participants, and their families who support them through it, are the real MVPs of scientific progress.
I envision a future where individuals who have lost an upper limb can use the NEPH system to reconnect with the world—to hold a loved one’s hand, cradle a child, and touch a door handle. I’ve seen the joy and surprise on a participant’s face the moment they realize they have a sense of touch again. It takes all of us to make that a reality. Behind every breakthrough is a team—researchers, engineers, clinicians, and courageous participants—working together to restore something that makes us profoundly human.