Amputee Life — Amputee News

Back in 2020, we wrote about the introduction of the Access to Assistive Technology and Devices for Americans Study Act, a.k.a. the Triple A Study Act by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn). It’s been almost two years, and some of you may be wondering what has happened since then.

Specialized prosthetic legs for running have enabled athletes with bilateral leg amputations to surpass the qualifying standards for the Olympic 400-meter race. Because these adaptive athletes clock in relatively fast finishes, many assume prosthetic legs provide an unfair advantage over biologically legged competitors.

Although some creatures, like lizards, starfish, and crabs, can fully regenerate some lost limbs, African clawed frogs, like humans, cannot. However, a recent development showed that scientists had gotten frogs with amputated limbs to grow new, leg-like limbs in the laboratory, and this discovery might be the key to helping humans regrow limbs.

On Nov. 2, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized the 2022 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and ASC Payment System. The new payment system will see a 23% payment cut to in-office revascularization services, undoubtedly limiting patient access to this limb-saving procedure.

Life-changing inventions are never achieved by looking at problems through one lens. Today's advancements were made possible through interdisciplinary thinking and collaborating with experts from other fields.