Medical device developer wins neurotech startup award

London, ON – Medical device developer Medtrode received the 2006 Gold Electrode Award as the most promising start-up firm in the neurotechnology industry at this years Neurotech Leaders Forum held in San Francisco on September 28-29. The conference was attended by leading academics, executives from medical device companies and investors interested in the new area of neurotechnology called neuromodulation.

At the forum, Dr Souhile Assaf, president of Medtrode summarized development of a small multi-channel recording and stimulating device expected to aid in the advancement of a procedure called deep brain stimulation (DBS). In Parkinson’s, DBS has proven to be effective in treating the debilitating symptoms of tremors, slowness of movement and rigidity. Neuromodulation may also hold the future to improving the lives of people with other neurological disorders such as Tourette’s syndrome, depression, epilepsy and eating disorders.

The development of this neurosurgical device is a joint collaboration between Lawson Health Research Institute (Lawson), National Research Council of Canada’s Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute (NRC-IMTI) in London, the University of Waterloo department of electrical engineering and computer science and Medtrode.

Dr Mandar Jog, co-inventor of the technology who is also an associate professor of neurology at Lawson and director of the movement disorder program at the London Health Sciences Centre, was also present at the awards ceremony. According to Dr Jog, the proposed device will carry a significantly enhanced functionality and intelligence on a much smaller and less traumatic device.”