As part of a wider effort to identify and address traumatic brain injuries in soldiers, the US Army has taken interest in a product being developed by brain monitoring device company NeuroWave Systems Inc.
The Cleveland-area company just won a new, $2.5 million contract through the Army’s Medical Research and Materiel Command to develop a device that would let medics screen for traumatic brain injury in soldiers in the field.
Called SeizTBI, the device is a wearable, miniaturized version of the company’s FDA-cleared NeuroFAST brain monitor designed to be used as an early screening tool. “We believe the SeizTBI will become part of the medic’s medical pack to screen for a suspected concussion or TBI,” NeuroWave’s principal investigator, Dr. Stephane Bibian, said in a company statement. “The device will automatically acquire and save post-injury electroencephalogram (EEG) data, and process the signals to detect the early EEG markers of TBI.”
Recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq resulted in more combat-related brain injuries than past conflicts, according to the Deployment Health Clinical Center, although most are mild. In one 2009 study, more than one in five soldiers in a nearly 4,000-member Brigade Combat Team returned from Iraq with a clinician-confirmed TBI. Another study in military personnel established a strong connection between concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder and physical health problems several months later.
Detection and stabilization within the “golden hour” after a traumatic injury is thought to be crucial for patient’s health. But even with improved diagnostics, current treatments are limited. For many, rest, surgery or rehabilitation are the recommended interventions. The Army’s Medical Research and Materiel Command has engaged in a number of similar contracts to support development of methods for preventing and treating TBI, and for other methods of screening including a hand-held-device by BrainScope.
This isn’t the first time NeuroWave has done work with the Army. A few years ago, it won a contract to develop a product called AutoTIVA, a portable, closed-loop anesthesia system that uses algorithms to automatically maintain the proper level of anesthesia in patients. That technology is based on its NeuroSENSE technology, which is the company’s only commercially available product, although it’s only on the market in Canada and Europe.
NeuroWave was spun off from Cleveland Medical Devices in 2008.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
[Photo from Flickr user US Army]
