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Friday, July 25, 2008
Bionic Devices: No Longer a Science-fiction Fantasy
Dana Kochnower
FOXBusiness
It’s not quite the $6 million man, but bionic devices are no longer a science-fiction fantasy.
In the year since launching the iLimb hand, Scottish company Touch Bionics--a maker of upper-limb prosthetics--has undergone an aggressive expansion into the U.S.
The i-LIMB Hand has five individually-powered digits and is made of high-strength plastics.
In May 2008 Touch Bionics acquired the complete operations of LIVINGSKIN, which makes prosthetic skin to cover the iLimb.
In an interview with FOX Business Morning, Touch Bionics CEO Stuart Mead said more than 330 patients in 23 countries have been fitted for the hand, which costs about $60,000, a cost Mead says is increasingly being covered by insurance.
Click here to watch Mead on FOX Business Morning
FOXBusiness.com interviewed iLimb patient Keiron McCammon about his experience with the bionic hand.
Watch the clip below watch Keiron demonstrate the iLimb bionic hand.
After losing his hand in a paragliding accident in 2006, McCammon was determined to resume his active life. Within a few months of the accident, McCammon hit the slopes with his snowboard. In the two years since, he has resumed scuba diving, playing the guitar and has started a new venture, www.onehandedblogger.com.
McCammon said the blog came as an epiphany of sorts while in the hospital when his wife was having a hard time finding stories from other people who had gone through similar experiences.
He says he hopes charting his recovery and sharing how he overcomes the challenges of one-handed living can help others.
Two-and-a-half years after losing his hand, McCammon says he ultimately discovered “if you have the right attitude if you have the right mind you can get on to anything you want to do… and when you look back you say life hasn’t really changed. “
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Some mutual funds want you to pay for the privilege of them (or your investment adviser) taking your money to invest. It's called a load, and it works like a cover charge to get into a nightclub. Luckily, there are such things as no-load funds. As the name implies, shares of these funds are sold without a fee paid to a broker or investment advisor.
The entire amount you invest in no-load funds goes to work for your returns. On the other hand, with load funds, right off the bat you're charged commission (not to mention other fees incurred over the life of the investment). Let's say, for example, you invest $25,000 into a load fund that charges a 5% commission. This costs you $1,250 off the top, bringing your actual investment down to only $23,750.
The often-cited horse race analogy argues against investing in load funds. Here's the logic behind it: Would you place a bet on a horse that had to start a race 200 yards behind the others? Well, maybe you would if you got a tip from a sketchy, trench coat-clad man in a dark alley. However, under most circumstances, it's not smart to put your money on that handicapped horse.
But some argue that at times that man in the trench coat (aka your broker) knows more about the horses than you do, and has a better shot at picking a winner. Also, sometimes these fees are unavoidable because some funds are available only through investment advisers.
Cost-benefit analysis can help determine when a load fund is worth it (in other words, when it will score you a load) and when it is better to "do it yourself" and avoid the fees. Load-fund fees range depending on share class and can cover a variety of costs, such as paper work and fund management.
