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Manufacturers of noninvasive neuromodulation systems have experienced their share of ups and downs on the reimbursement front in recent months. While some vendors of wearable headsets and other surface stimulation systems survive on customers who pay out of pocket or on private insurers, most neurotech healthcare firms depend heavily on reimbursement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Executives from west coast medical device firms assembled in Santa Clara, CA earlier this month for the DeviceTalks West Conference. The two-day event was produced of MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing magazine, and other healthcare industry publications. On the first day, Action Potential VC partner Juan-Pablo Mas spoke on a panel devoted to investment. Brett Wall, president of Medtronic’s neuroscience portfolio, gave a keynote talk on the second day.

Neurotech Reports, the publisher of the Neurotech Business Report newsletter, announced that 12 promising neurotechnology startups and early-stage firms will present at the 2022 Neurotech Leaders Forum in San Francisco, November 7-8. The 22nd annual event—the most established in the industry—will also feature presentations and panel discussions on important issues confronting the neurotechnology industry.

As we’ve written in this space in the past, the neurotechnology industry will need to be increasingly cognizant of the ethical issues surrounding neurotech devices. This issue became more pronounced this month when the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a draft resolution on neurotechnology and human rights. The draft resolution was submitted by Greece, Chile, and Singapore and adopted without a vote.

Neural regulation of immunity is not a new idea. Way back in 2000, Kevin Tracey and colleagues published their findings about the effects of efferent vagus nerve signaling and its role in modulating inflammation. The investigators showed that lethal endotoxaemia in rats could be inhibited the vagus. The researchers saw inhibited TNF synthesis in the liver, attenuated peak serum TNF amounts, and prevention in the development of shock.

In recent months, the market for implanted brain-computer interfaces has intensified as commercial efforts from firms such as Synchron, Neuralink, and Paradromics seek to challenge the early market leader Blackrock Neurotech. Now, a European effort funded , may produce another competitor in this space. A research consortium led Center in the Netherlands in collaboration with Graz University of Tech…

Several neurotechnology researchers and entrepreneurs who were instrumental in the development of the industry participated in an intensive online workshop devoted to brain-computer interfaces and related technologies earlier this month. The two-day event, titled “Brain-Machine and Related Neural Interface Technologies: Scientific, Technical, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues,” was organized and Global Affairs Division.

The recent National Academies Workshop on Brain-Machine and Related Neural Interfaces featured presentations from a number of neurotechnology pioneers who have advanced the field over the last 20 years [see conference report, p7]. But in our view, one of the most meaningful presentations came not from a researcher, but a user of neurotechnology. Brandy Ellis, a patient with treatment-resistant depression, related her experiences with an implanted DBS system.

A recent paper in Nature: Scientific Reports provides a peek at what Galvani Bioelectronics and Case Western Reserve University have been up to over the past few years. “Low intensity stimulation of aortic baroreceptor afferent fibers as a potential therapeutic alternative for hypertension treatment” provides an insightful look at an alternative way of using neuromodulation as a means of addressing hypertension and heart failure.

A mostly in-person audience of pain doctors, neuromodulation industry professionals, and researchers attended the 2022 Napa Pain Conference earlier this month in the wine country of California. The event was produced , a company founded . A preconfernce workshop was devoted to cancer pain. Katalin Karikó from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who invented the modifi…