fMRI Fingerprint
Electroceuticals are a rapidly growing treatment for various medical disorders – particularly within psychiatry, neurology, chronic pain management and rehabilitation therapy. Combining targeted electric stimuli with feedback from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can provide valuable information about the mechanisms underlying their therapeutic effects.
The Inspiration Behind the Innovation
A lack of technology that can ensure safe and accurate experimentation has hampered researchers' ability to explore the therapeutic effects of elecroceuticals. In addition to advancing research, solving these two main challenges could help to improve screening for certain medical procedures (i.e., lumbar fusion therapy, intensive rehabilitation after a spinal cord injury or stroke) and reduce treatment times for related conditions.
The Innovation
The fMRI fingerprint is an optical fiber technology that allows electrostimulation during fMRI scans. This tool can help clinicians predict the patient’s response to expensive therapies (e.g. long-term intensive rehabilitation, spine fusion surgery and implantation of neuromodulators for deep brain stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation and spinal cord stimulation).
The system solves three major problems related to electrical stimuli and fMRI examinations by:
- Preventing distortion of the fMRI signal
- Enabling communication that synchronize the experimental conditions
- Surmounting the safety hazards caused by interference from the powerful magnetic field and RF emission
As a result, this innovation clears the path toward better clinical decision-making and more insights into the central nervous system.
The Team
Louise Møller Jørgensen: MD, PhD, Consultant nNeurosurgeon, Associate Professor with function as Innovation Ambassador; Center for Rheumatology and Spine Diseases, Rigshospitalet
Anders Ohlhues Baandrup: R&D Engineer; University Hospital of Copenhagen - Roskilde
Carsten Højer: Business Developer