The ElectRx, pronounced "electrics", is a tiny device that could offer a look into patients' bodies using electric impulses to monitor and fix vital organs, The Daily Mail reported on Friday.
Each implant would be so small, it could be injected into patients' bodies using a needle. As it becomes in sync with the body, the implant would use electric impulses to monitor the health of a patient's organs.
If it discovers that an organ is infected, injured or failing, it would activate the nerves needed to get the affected organ functioning at tip-top shape again.
The science behind the implant is based on the body's natural monitoring system, known as neuromodulation. Neuromodulation monitors the status of organs through the body's peripheral nervous system, and manages how they respond to disease.
But this process can be weakened, and doesn't work as well as it should when a person is sick or injured. It can sometimes cause people to become more ill as the body fails to fight the infection.
The implant being proposed by Darpa would give this natural process a boost and keep it going strong even if a person becomes sick.
Current medical neuromodulation implants are large and difficult to put in, but Darpa's implant would be small enough to target precise nerve endings.
Because of the recent identification of neural circuits involved in the regulation of immune system function, Darpa's implant could possibly be important in the treatment of various inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. The revolutionary implant could one day lead to better treatments for various brain and mental health problems, such as epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, according to IFL Science.
But ElectRx has got a long way to go before these devices could be prescribed and sold. Researchers need to develop techniques that would allow the precise targeting of single nerves or small populations of nerve fibers that control important organs.
