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Neurotech Reports, the publisher of this newsletter, announced the winners of the 2017 Gold Electrode Awards. The awards were presented at the 2017 Neurotech Leaders Forum in San Francisco earlier this month. The award for best new product went to Medasense Biometrics Ltd. for its PMD-200 system for reporting an objective measure of pain. The award for most promising startup went to GiMer Medical.

The market for treating major depression and related psychiatric disorders with neuromodulation therapies, which had stalled in recent years after two failed clinical trials, seems ready to rebound. Several new vendors have announced new noninvasive brain stimulation devices and at least one established vendor of implanted devices released clinical data that holds out promise for new commercial activity.

When this publication first profiled the Cleveland FES Center more than 10 years ago, the center was unique for its collaborations and unquestionably a premier research institution in neuroprosthetics. Today, the center still thrives on collaboration but has expanded and diversified its role in the neurotechnology field. During the recent “State of the FES Center 2017” talk, executive director Robert Kirsch stressed that success is based on enabling trans-disciplinary collaborations.

The Neurotech Leaders Forum, which took place in San Francisco earlier this month, has always been a great opportunity for us to get updates from some of the leading neurotech firms [see Conference Report, p7]. This year, we had an opportunity to inform the industry of some new goings on at Neurotech Reports. To begin with, we announced that Jeremy Koff has joined the editorial staff of Neurotech Reports as senior contributing editor.

The market for visual prostheses is attracting new players and new methodologies from existing vendors. In recent months, commercial and research teams have shown progress on a number of fronts. One of the pioneers in the field is the Artificial Retina team. Within that group are names like Mark Humayun and Jim Weiland at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California, Robert Greenberg from Second Sight and Wentai Liu of the University of California Santa Cruz.

Vendors of digital health and software products used for diagnosing and treating psychological and neurological disorders will soon face a new regulatory framework set forth . The new regulations could impact vendors of brain assessment systems and other neurodiagnostic tools that incorporate software modules. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb gave details of a new pre-certification pilot program for software as a medical device at the AdvaMed MedTech Conference in San Jose, CA earlier this month.

Neurotech Reports, the publisher of Neurotech Business Report, announced that executives from several established and emerging neurotechnology firms will present at the 2017 Neurotech Leaders Forum. The 17th annual event will take place October 23-24 in San Francisco. The keynote speaker at this year’s conference is Thomas Insel, M.D., the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health and the co-founder and president of Mindstrong Health.

As the field of neurotechnology moves from purely medical applications to new uses in consumer electronics, information processing, and human performance, it has attracted interest and investment from some of the giants of the tech industry. One year ago, internet entrepreneur Bryan Johnson told attendees at the Neurotech Leaders Forum of his $100 million investment in Kernel and his interest in expanding human intelligence using neurotechnology.

Chronic pain is one of the greatest healthcare problems facing the U.S. and other nations. It is also a burgeoning market opportunity for neuromodulation device vendors. Although historically, neurotech therapies have played a major role in treating chronic back pain, as Jennifer French points out in her article on page 1 of this issue, migraine pain is rapidly emerging as a new market opportunity.

The flow of funds from government agencies for neurotech research continues to be significant in 2017. As we report in our article on page 1 of this issue, DARPA recently awarded $65 million in new contracts to research institutions and commercial firms as part of its Neural Engineering System Design program. DARPA is not the only federal agency with new funding for neurotechnology research. At the…