A driving factor in new implant design is the growing awareness that disease often involves complex interactions between multiple systems in the body. This networked perspective has led to the emergence of the fields of networked physiology and networked medicine. At Draper https://www.draper.com, medical implants are slimming down and getting connected.
“Patients and clinicians want smarter medical implants” said Jesse J. Wheeler, Draper’s Neuro-technology Business Lead. “They see small wireless technologies shaping other parts of their lives and wonder why the medical field isn’t responding with better devices. However, Draper has tackled this challenge by developing a miniature wireless and networked neuromodulation system that is about 20 times smaller than existing implants.
Draper’s Gemstones’ Neuromodulation System is able to provide doctors and patients with benefits of using much smaller, smarter, and more scalable implants that combine advanced wireless connectivity and miniaturization.
As Wheeler explained, “The system consists of tiny implantable devices called Gemstones that are only one cubic centimeter. Each Gemstone is wirelessly powered and equipped with advanced microelectronics providing 32 channels of recording and stimulation.
He further explains, “This means that recorded biosignals can be monitored by distributed Gemstones and be used to trigger coordinated stimulation therapies on-the-fly to target disease in ways not previously possible.”
For example, many brain disorders, like neuropsychiatric illnesses affect multiple distributed neural regions that can’t all be accessed by existing systems. Gemstones’ network capability may provide new opportunities to restore balance to these brain networks.
Potential peripheral applications that can benefit from distributed systems include hypertension diabetes, incontinence, pain, reanimation of paralyzed limbs, and restoration of limb function for amputees through neuro-prosthetics.