University of Michigan Health

Stories

Paradromics brain implant lets patient communicate in real time

One of three sites in the Connect-One trial

A Michigan woman with motor neuron disease recently called her grandchildren. She didn't use her voice — a brain implant decoded her intended words and spoke them through a synthesizer. Her first freely chosen sentence: "Okay, I have a lot to say."

Updated Sep 14

AI systems advance toward autonomous medical diagnosis

New Capabilities

Developer of Prima AI system

University of Michigan researchers published Prima in February 2026, an AI that reads brain MRIs in seconds with up to 97.5% accuracy across 50 neurological conditions. In April 2026, Harvard Medical School reported that OpenAI's o1 model correctly diagnosed emergency patients 67% of the time, compared to 50–55% for two attending physicians reviewing the same cases.

Updated Jun 24