Electronics


setting, to a medical device that complies with all the requirements of European standards. At the same time, it’s very dangerous to develop something that the customer is not looking for or doesn’t need. Clearly, we had to consolidate the technology, make it reproducible and very controlled, develop the device, and put together all the critical pieces necessary to make the electrodes and keep them – electrically and biologically – stable. But we also had to focus on what’s important for the user. There is a gap between the basic research I was doing in academia, which can seem a bit like science fiction, and current medical needs. So, we simplified some aspects of our technology. Our first product, the Cortical Strip, just improves an electrode that already exists in terms of shape. It’s simple, but we decided to give the users – the surgeons – something they know, an electrode, and improve the conformability, which is what they wanted to have improved, while leaving the rest very similar to what they already had. Potentially, we could have made a completely new geometry or made a huge number of extremely small electrodes, which would be fascinating, but it’s too early for that to be adopted, because surgeons are trained to do the procedure with a particular number of electrodes.


For intraoperative neuromonitoring, we provide the same number of electrodes, in the same geometry and improve the one aspect that users were hoping could be improved. In the future, we know we can do a whole variety of fancy and strange geometries, but that’s an evolution – you have to bring the relevant innovation to the hands of the user for the needs of the patient first. Other companies have come to the market with innovations but remain in a niche because, in the end, you need to have a good reason to drill a hole in somebody’s head. If you want to play a game on your PC, you might prefer a better joystick before a hole in your skull.


When you’re in academia, it’s important that you stay in front of innovation. You work to push the line forward. I support all the people that are developing great science in Europe at the moment. But when you’re in


Medical Device Developments / www.nsmedicaldevices.com 79


business, what’s important is that you develop products that are relevant for the user, so one has to find the actual needs of the user they are serving. Science looks for what will happen in the next ten years and beyond, business has to focus on the next five, or maybe less.


Take out the risk Manfred Franke: If you look at neuromodulation technology as a subset of medical devices, whether it’s being used to provide sensory input through an artificial hand, stimulate neuromuscular junctions with a pacemaker, or change how cells process signals to block pain, it always requires a highly invasive procedure. A surgeon has to open up a patient in


Opening page: The Cortical Strip, developed by WISE, is a highly-conformable intraoperative neuromonitoring electrode for brain tumour and epilepsy surgeries.


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