'It's Like You Have a Hand Again': New Prosthetic Gets Closer to the Real Thing

WEDNESDAY, March 4, 2020 -- A brain-controlled robotic arm gives users precise hand control that enables them to do more complicated things intuitively than they could with a conventional prosthetic, researchers say.

"It's like you have a hand again," said study participant Joe Hamilton, who lost his arm in a fireworks accident in 2013. "You can pretty much do anything you can do with a real hand with that hand. It brings you back to a sense of normalcy."

Wearable 'Brain Stimulator' May Boost Stroke Recovery

THURSDAY, Feb. 20, 2020 -- A noninvasive magnetic brain stimulation device worn less than an hour a day can increase activity near stroke-injured areas of the brain, a small, preliminary study suggests.

Those improvements in brain activity might then lead to increased motor function in people who have had a stroke, the researchers said.

More Lasting Damage From Gun Violence Than Car Accidents

THURSDAY, Jan. 23, 2020 -- Gun violence appears to deliver more long-term damage to survivors than car crashes do.

"Our study shows that injury, and especially firearm injury, casts a long shadow over the lives of those who survive," said study author Dr. Juan Herrera-Escobar. He is research director of Long-Term Outcomes in Trauma in the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Only 1 in 4 Older Cardiac Patients Get Rehab Therapy

THURSDAY, Jan. 23, 2020 -- Cardiac rehabilitation is known to help people recover after a heart attack or heart surgery, but a new study shows only one-quarter of eligible Medicare patients actually use it.

Which patients are most likely to pass on rehab? Women, those aged 85 and older, blacks, Hispanics and those who live in the Southeast and Appalachia, researchers found.