Neuromorphic Engineering in Healthcare

Abstract: Recently, there has been a growing demand for miniaturization, low power consumption, quick treatments, and non-invasive clinical strategies in the healthcare industry. To meet these demands, healthcare professionals are seeking new technological paradigms that can improve diagnostic accuracy while ensuring patient compliance. Neuromorphic engineering, which uses neural models in hardware and software to replicate brain-like behaviors, can help usher in a new era of medicine by delivering low power, low latency, small footprint, and high bandwidth solutions. This presentation provides an overview of recent neuromorphic advancements in medicine, including medical imaging and cancer diagnosis, processing of biosignals for diagnosis, and biomedical interfaces, such as motor, cognitive, and perception prostheses. For each area, we provide examples of how brain-inspired models can successfully compete with conventional artificial intelligence algorithms, demonstrating the potential of neuromorphic engineering to meet demands and improve patient outcomes. We will focus on a spinal-cord injuries mitigation and neural stimulation as concrete examples of where neuromorphic engineering was used. Lastly, we discuss current struggles in fitting neuromorphic hardware with non-neuromorphic technologies and propose potential solutions for future bottlenecks in hardware compatibility. Biography: Ralph Etienne-Cummings, an IEEE, AIMBE and ASI Fellow, received his B. Sc. in physics, 1988, from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. He completed his M.S.E.E ('91). and Ph.D. ('94) in electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Etienne-Cummings is the Vice-Provost for Faculty Affairs, previous (7/2014 – 7/2020) Chairman of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Julian S. Smith Professor of Electrical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). He was the founding Director of the Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering. He has served as Chairman of various IEEE Circuits and Systems (CAS) Technical Committees and was elected as a member of CAS Board of Governors. He also serves on numerous editorial boards and was the Deputy Editor in Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems. He is the recipient of the NSF’s Career and Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Awards, among many other recognitions. He was a Visiting African Fellow at U. Cape Town, Fulbright Fellowship Grantee, Eminent Visiting Scholar at U. Western Sydney and has also won numerous publication and research awards. He was also recognized as a “ScienceMaker”, an African American history archive and for the “Indispensable Roles of African Americans at JHU” exhibit. In 2021 was elected to the Johns Hopkins Homewood Academic Council, which is the highest body responsible for maintaining excellence in research, teaching and service at the University. He has published nearly 400 peer reviewed article, books/chapters and patents/applications on his work.