News

Neurotech Executives Report Progress at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference January 2011 More than 8000 investors, financial professionals, and healthcare company executives attended the 2011 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, held in San Francisco earlier this month. Participating in the conference were CEOs of several public and private neurotechnology firms. Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins, who will be…

Magnetic Stim Attracts a Crowd It wasn’t that long ago that magnetic stimulation was looked at as somewhat suspect industry. But now the number of new entrants in the magnetic neuromodulation space is growing steadily, supplementing existing players using magnetic devices in stimulation, neurodiagnostics, and research. Some of the credit for this upsurge in interest in magnetic stimulation can be attributed to Neuronetics, Inc., the Malvern, PA manufacturer of transcranial magnetic stimulation systems.

Hands on My Medicare The effort to restructure Medicare created an outpouring of contention in recent weeks. The bill, proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) would replace the current defined-benefit model of Medicare with a voucher, averaging $11,000 per year, to be used for buying insurance coverage, starting in 2022. Ryan and the House Republicans are right to call attention to the rising cost of Medicare and its contribution to the nation’s debt problem.

Seeing the Solution The announcement that Second Sight Medical Products’ Argus II retinal implant has been approved for sale in Europe [see article, p5] is exceptionally good news for the neurotech industry and for visually impaired people all over the world. The approval represents the first ever for a device restoring vision to blind people. The Argus II will only be available in four locations i…

Obsessing About DBS Many of us who have observed the growth of the neurotechnology industry over the last 10 years have felt frustrated at times government approval of promising new therapies. It becomes particularly so when technology originally developed by U.S. research institutions and startup firms reaches the market first in Europe, simply because many companies have decided that obtaining CE Mark is a much easier path then getting a PMA approved .

Neurosensing the Consumer Advances in neurotechnology have given clinicians some powerful tools to diagnose and treat individuals with neurological diseases and disorders. Much of the same technology now offers marketing professionals some interesting new capabilities for understanding their customers and the neurological basis for consumers’ behavior. It’s not out of the question that these nonmed…

Gold Electrode Awards Announced at 2010 Neurotech Leaders Forum The editors of Neurotech Reports selected recipients of the 2010 Gold Electrode Awards in five categories. The awards were presented at the 2010 Neurotech Leaders Forum in San Francisco, CA earlier this month. The award for Most Promising Startup went to Spinal Modulation, Inc., a pain neuromodulation firm in Menlo Park, CA. Medtronic Inc.

The Decade of the Product As the decade comes to a close, it’s worth noting that some of the newest neurotechnology products to reach the market were probably in the incubation process 10 years ago, prior to the millennium. And that means that entrepreneurs who are just now developing new neurotech devices will not see their products hit the market until the end of the next decade. In all likelihoo…

Brave New Neuroscience Researchers and executives involved with neurotechnology products and therapies have always had to concern themselves with issues of ethics, as is the case with most all healthcare industry and biomedical research applications. But as was pointed out by Prof. Hank Greely of Stanford University at the recent Society for Neuroscience Meeting in San Diego [see conference report…

The Forest for the Trees Researchers and clinicians involved with the goal of restoring function to individuals paralyzed as a result of spinal cord injury need all the support they can get. So at first blush, the functional electrical stimulation community might have been encouraged October 26 Wall Street Journal about neurotechnology aiding people with paralysis. Unfortunately, the reporter, like…