-
My name is Dr. Moses deGraft-Johnson.
-
The term “assistive technology” is defined
-
by the World Health Organization (WHO)
-
as an umbrella term that covers
-
systems and services that are related to
-
the delivery of assistive products and
-
services, and the whole purpose
-
of this is to aid an individual by giving
-
them independence and promoting their
-
overall well-being.
-
Now, as my colleague here just showed us
-
some very cool innovations,
-
some of the innovations that we
-
are very familiar with are the simplest
-
things such as the hearing aids,
-
wheelchairs, and the prosthesis. Even
-
something as simple as pill organizers,
-
because this is something even people
-
without a true disability utilize, you
-
know? My mother utilizes pill organizers.
-
So we find that there are certain
-
assistive technologies that even
-
individuals who do not have a true
-
disability also utilize in their daily
-
lives. And we’re seeing more and more
-
of that globally; more than
-
one billion people need one or more
-
assistive products.
-
Now this is the part that I really want to
-
get into, because this really talks about
-
what I do for a living,
-
and recently what we’ve seen is that the
-
World Health Organization released some
-
data, and what we see is a rise in
-
non-communicable diseases that are
-
causing persons with disability.
-
And one of the most common ones that was
-
mentioned was diabetes. But also, along
-
with diabetes was hypertension and
-
hyperlipidemia, also known simply
-
as high cholesterol, obesity, and smoking.
-
Now what’s interesting is that these five
-
variables are also known in cardiovascular
-
medicine as the five major risk factors
-
for a major cardiovascular event
-
They lead to something called
atheromatous plaque.
-
This is plaque formation of buildup in
-
our blood vessels. This is an example of a
-
normal coronary artery in the heart,
-
and as we see, over time we get damages,
-
buildups, and eventually we have lack of
-
perfusion, or lack of blood flow.
-
And that’s what eventually leads to heart
-
attacks, strokes, and poor circulation,
-
commonly known as “P-A-D.”
-
Now, at the Heart and Vascular Institute,
-
what we have done is we have an
-
initiative called the
"Save a Limb Initiative."
-
One of the things that my goal was was to
-
at least limit the amount of amputations
-
that were occurring in that community.
-
When we see patients who have these
-
sorts of problems, the first thing we
-
do after we’ve assessed them is called
-
acute limb ischemia. We take them
-
into the operating room and utilize a
-
GE system called a C-ARM.
-
What it does is it’s an X-ray that takes
-
pictures of the legs from the bellybutton
-
all the way down to the feet.
-
We use contrast dye to inject into the
-
patients so it will allow us to give us an
-
image, sort of like this.
-
So this first picture here… clearly you
-
don’t need to be a doctor to see there’s a
-
significant problem here. This is called
-
This is called the superficial femoral
-
artery. this is the big vessel that lies
-
between your hip and your knee.
-
It’s like a highway that’s not complete
-
because there’s something missing here,
-
right in the middle.
-
So this individual has developed a
-
blockage in that blood vessel that has
-
definitely caused a total occlusion of
-
blood flow flowing from this part,
-
which is coming from the belly button area
-
going down to the knee.
-
So once we take that picture with that GE
-
system, I’m able to see this and initial,
-
and right here I’m able to, just like a
-
plumber does, you know, you
snake the pipes.
-
So here you have a specific type of water
-
system that I use to cross the artery.
-
And once I cross the water system, on this
-
side… I’m going to show you this picture
-
here… I use a system called
-
a jetstream atherectomy device.
-
Now this system is a system that is made
-
by a company called Boston Scientific.
-
Boston Scientific is a medical device
-
company based out of
-
Maple Grove Minneapolis, in Minnesota.
-
And what it is is that basically we use
-
this device, it’s like a drilling system.
-
Just like in the oil fields, they drill
-
the ground. We use this system over that
-
wire that I’ve put into the system and
-
we’re able to go over the wire and clean
-
out the plaques that have formed.
-
Once that plaque is cleaned out, we use a
-
balloon system to stretch out the
-
blood vessels to really give it a wide
-
opening, and sometimes once it stays open,
-
if it stays open it’s fine but if it
-
doesn’t stay open, it has a tendency
-
to constrict again, and that’s when
-
we have a tendency to put in a stent
-
to keep it open. So in this picture right
-
here, this diagram, you see that we were
-
successful opening up this total occlusion
-
here, and opening it up and restoring
-
blood flow back to the limb.
-
This is an actual photograph of one of my
-
patients. Unfortunately, this was a
-
gentleman that we were not able to save
-
his leg. So this is six weeks
-
after surgery after I amputated.
-
This is called a BKA, a below the knee
-
amputation. And I often say that if
-
you’re not fortunate enough for me to save
-
the limb, I’d rather you have a
-
below the knee amputation versus
-
above the knee amputation, because
-
functionality-wise it’s better for the
-
individual because we’re able to really
-
fit him very well with a good prosthesis,
-
that they can go back and handle it and
-
walk as if nothing ever happened.
-
But it becomes a huge challenge once you
-
go above the knee. It’s very hard to fit
-
someone for any good prosthesis,
-
for them to bear weight.
-
We call this the “stump line.”
-
And we have a tendency to have a lot of
-
breakdown on this stump line.
-
So it just makes things a little bit
-
difficult. So unfortunately, I was not
-
able to save this man’s leg sine we had
-
the surgery, and this is him and his wife
-
after surgery.
-
So this is the sort of assistive
-
technology we’re used to seeing.
-
And in the past, I have to admit,
-
I have to be clear and be honest with you,
-
I never really paid attention to a lot of
-
this stuff until I met Chet Cooper.
-
That’s when I started to really focus and
-
pay attention to these things.
-
They’re right in front of us, they’re
-
right around us, but we’re so busy with
-
our daily lives we don’t pay attention to
-
things that are happening.
-
But this is now a big problem and a part
-
of my practice right now, of what I do.
-
So once we have saved the limb,
-
the question is then how do you prevent
-
them from ending up like this gentleman.
-
So we have a technology called the SPY.
-
The SPY was developed by a company
-
called Novadaq and then they sold it off
-
to a company called Stryker.
-
Stryker is a big medical device company
-
that does a lot of spine surgery for
-
people with back problems and this sort
-
of thing. So it’s kind of shocking why
-
they got into the vascular business. But
-
anyway, with SPY technology, what it does
-
is that it utilizes a fluorescent agent
-
that we inject into the patient, so after
-
the patient has had the
revascularization procedure,
-
they follow up at the office, we inject
-
them with the fluorescent agent,
-
and what it does is that we’re able to put
-
this camera right on their feet, right
-
overhead, and it gives us
this thermal imaging.
-
So when you see this right here, that’s
-
good news. Actually the redder, the more
-
red it is, the better it is. It means you
-
have really good flow.
-
And as the area gets a little bit blue,
-
that means you have diminishing blood
-
flow in that area. And when it gets to be
-
like this, you know you have a serious
-
problem. So this type of stuff is what
-
we’ve been doing for people in Miami,
-
for people in the Florida region.
-
And so I started to take this type of
-
practice back to Ghana.
-
Ghana is very interesting to me, not only
-
because I’m from Ghana,
-
but I’ve been very impressed with the
-
government of Ghana in terms of their
-
initiatives, which is a little bit
-
surprising to me because in those parts
-
of the world there’s a stigma that is
-
associated with individuals or persons
-
with disability.
-
Ghana is a small country in West Africa,
-
the population is about 28 million.
-
The GDP is about $130 billion. That puts
-
them at number 12 out of 52 of African
-
countries, and it’s actually the blueprint
-
for African democracy. It’s a
-
constitutional republic.
-
And English is the official language
of the country.
-
About 15 percent of the Ghana population
-
are persons with disability.
-
In 2006, the country passed a disability
-
law, and the purpose for this was to end
-
discrimination against individuals with
-
disability in the country.
-
The country has been working very very
-
hard to improve the living conditions
-
of individuals that live there.
-
My foundation, what we’ve done is that,
-
we’re really focusing on, because
-
disabilities, there are so many causes of
-
disabilities, from congenital diseases to
-
hereditary diseases and also acquired
-
diseases. With the acquired diseases,
-
my focus is really on the
-
noncommunicable diseases, because it
-
really falls in line with something we
-
have knowledge on. So what I've done is
-
that I’ve invested my own money into
-
building a hospital. This is a rendering,
-
a rendition, of the hospital,
the deGraft Research Hospital,
-
and the purpose of this hospital
-
is to facilitate the work that we
-
have done very successfully in Florida.
-
This is more images, and this is the
-
current progress of the hospital.
-
So hopefully by the end of next year
-
we will complete this project,
-
and then we will be able to offer the same
-
things we offer the people of Florida,
-
in Ghana. Thank you.