News

It did not come as a major surprise when we learned that the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons issued a statement earlier this month on “opioid use, misuse, and abuse in orthopaedic practice.” Orthopaedic surgeons are the third highest prescribers of opioids in our healthcare system. AAOS joins the American Academy of Neurology and other medical groups in calling attention to the serious epi…

The potential market for neurotech therapies to treat age-related memory and cognitive disorders took a hit recently with the report of less than encouraging results from Functional Neuromodulation’s ADvance study of DBS of the fornix for Alzheimer’s disease [NBR Jul15 p1]. But two new studies that shed light on possible neurological mechanisms for memory and cognitive decline offer hope for new therapeutic approaches.

The goal of developing a neurotechnology therapy to treat cognitive and memory disorders is a challenging yet potentially rewarding one, as we report in our article on page 1 of this issue. Clearly, identifying the key brain regions that could act as potential DBS targets and elucidating the salient neural code responsible for normal and pathological memory function are important milestones in achieving that goal.

When the consumer neurotech startup Thync announced that it had been exempted from FDA approval of its new brain stimulation device, not everyone was happy. Some established vendors of medical-grade cortical stimulation devices groused openly that the FDA might have been too lenient in allowing new devices like Thync’s on the market without more testing and oversight. With several new vendors of co…

The potential market for treating psychiatric disorders with deep brain stimulation continues to confound research teams working in the area. Recently released data from two DBS studies offered disappointing results, but investigators and commercial firms still believe there is great potential for treating disorders such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease. In the current issue of Biological Psyc…

About 200 neuroscientists, clinicians, and neural engineers from the Northwest and beyond attended the second annual NeuroFutures Conference, held in Portland, OR earlier this month. The event was hosted University, with support from the University of Washington, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and the Northwest Neuro Neighborhood. Keynote speaker Helen Mayberg from Emory University gave attendees an update on her efforts at developing new DBS therapies for depression and other mood disorders.

October 20-21, 2014 Doubletree San Francisco Airport North Keynote Speaker Mir Imran founded InCube Labs to focus on his passion: creating medical solutions that change the standard of care in critical healthcare markets. After attending medical school, Mir began his career as a healthcare entrepreneur in the late 1970’s and has founded numerous game-changing companies since those early days. Over the decades, he has become one of the leading inventors and entrepreneurs in the field.

June, 2015 issue The neurotech market for treating urological and bladder disorders has become more crowded recently as several new firms have introduced new sacral nerve or tibial nerve stimulation systems. At the recent meeting of the International Neuromodulation Society in Montreal [see conference report, p7], several new players were on hand. Axonics Modulation Technologies of Irvine CA, a spi…

The reported results from Functional Neuromodulation’s ADvance study of DBS of the fornix for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, which showed no significant difference in cognitive scores between treatment and control arms [see article, page 1], is now the latest clinical trial disappointment for the neuromodulation industry. The publication of results from Medtronic’s trial of DBS of VC/VS for depression came as less of a shock, since we’ve known of that failure for some time.

The neurotech market for treating urological and bladder disorders has become more crowded recently as several new firms have introduced new sacral nerve or tibial nerve stimulation systems. At the recent meeting of the International Neuromodulation Society in Montreal [see conference report, p7], several new players were on hand. Axonics Modulation Technologies of Irvine CA, a spinoff from the Alf…