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About 1200 clinicians, neural engineers, and neuromodulation industry professionals attended the INS 14th World Congress in Sydney, Australia earlier this month. The meeting, produced , was the first one conducted in Australia. A preconference session called Innovations in Neuromodulation featured presentations -stage firms, three intermediate-stage firms, and five of the six major players in the spinal cord stimulation market (Nevro chose not to participate).

The market for noninvasive brain stimulation has received considerable attention in recent months, as new vendors have entered the market and investigators have proposed new therapies. Earlier this month, the Swedish vendor Flow Neuroscience entered the U.K. market for depression with its £399 tDCS headset. In the U.S., Bay Area startup Humm announced plans to launch its consumer tACS headset that it says improves working memory.

Since it first arrived on the scene as a new form of neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation has been subject to its fair share of ethical scrutiny. As we have stated in this space in the past [NBR Jan17 p2, NBR Sep17 p2], it is important to recognize issues of privacy and informed consent whenever we are dealing with implanted brain devices The latest DBS ethics issue involves clinical trials of DBS for treating addiction, particularly trials conducted in China.

One of the most tantalizing challenges that has confronted neuroprosthetics researchers has been developing a speech prosthesis that can restore a user’s voice using a brain computer interface. Such a system would offer significant value to people who have lost vocal function as a result of ALS, stroke, TBI, or other neurological disorders. One early researcher, Philip Kennedy of Emory University,…

A newly published market research report from Neurotech Reports, the publisher of this newsletter, forecasts that the worldwide market for bioelectronic medicine and related technologies will reach $16.6 billion by 2025. The Market for Bioelectronic Medicine: 2020-2025 takes an in-depth look at the technology, markets, competitors, research, and growth rates in key applications areas in the years 2020 through 2025.

One of the key themes emerging from the 2019 IEEE Conference on Neural Engineering, held in San Francisco earlier this month, is the often treacherous path of bringing a new neuromodulation therapy from research lab to regulatory approval [see Conference Report, p7]. One of the keynote speakers at the event, Mark George from the Medical University of South Carolina, offered his advice to entrepreneurs seeking to maximize the probability of a successful clinical trial and market approval.

April has been a busy month for the staff of Neurotech Reports. In the weeks following our Second Annual Bioelectronic Medicine Forum held in New York City earlier this month [see Conference Report, p7], we’ve put the finishing touches on our new market research report, The Market for Bioelectronic Medicine: 2020-2025 [see article, p3]. One of the challenges in generating the data for this report h…

The neurotech market for treating psychiatric disorders has expanded considerably in recent years and there are a number of new indications on the horizon. Several new alternatives for implanted, noninvasive, and diagnostic devices have emerged just in the last few months. The effort to develop a DBS therapy for major depression continues despite the trial failures six years ago. In the wake of UCS…

The much-anticipated reorganization of the FDA Center for Device and Radiological Health began implementation this month. The most significant change will be the realignment of offices around the total product lifecycle. The agency will now promote a team approach around key areas of the medical device industry. It is expected to “enhance communication” among the staff within CDRH and streamline “a…

Neural engineering professionals from across the globe attended the 9th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, held in San Francisco, CA earlier this month. Several neurotech luminaries delivered keynote addresses and featured lectures during the event. Robert Knight, professor of psychology and neuroscience director emeritus at Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley, delivered the opening keynote on March 20.