Five finalists for the $400,000 ALS Assistive Technology Challenge prize were recently announced in Washington, D.C., bringing the competition a step closer to its final phase when a single winner prevails Dec. 5 in Dublin.
Co-sponsored by The ALS Association and Prize4Life, the challenge will culminate at the International Symposium of ALS/MND. MND refers to motor neurone disease, another name for the condition used primarily in the U.K.
The finalists comprise teams from diverse locations: Project Vive of Howard, Pennsylvania; Pison Technology of Brookline, Massachusetts; Boston Children's Hospital of Boston, Massachusetts; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior of Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and BlueSky Designs of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Each of the finalists developed prototypes for flexible and accessible technology to help people with ALS communicate with greater ease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease for which no cure currently exists.
Those affected gradually lose the ability to manage muscle movement, frequently leading to paralysis and death. Veterans are twice as likely to develop ALS as the general population, though the reason for this is unclear.
"We are extremely grateful for all the submission received for the challenge," Lucie Bruijn, chief scientist at The ALS Association, said. "We look forward to the official judging in Dublin, which includes not only notable ALS scientists and technology experts but also people living with the disease, who will know better than anyone the impact this new technology will have in adapting to the symptoms of ALS and improving quality of life."
