Neuros Medical, a Greater Cleveland based medical device company, has developed a neuro-stimulator that has proven to eliminate chronic pain in amputees. A feasibility study, the first test on humans, showed the company's high-frequency Electrical Nerve Block™ technology reduced pain to zero in four of the five patients studied.

The device, which looks like a pacemaker attached to a wire, uses a high-frequency signal to stop the pain. "It will literally block that pain signal before it gets to the brain to be received," says Neuros president and CEO Jon Snyder. "Patients have complete numbness with no side effects or issues with addiction."

The technology was developed by Case Western Reserve University biomedical engineering professors Kevin Kilgore and Niloy Bhadra. The study was conducted by Dr. Amol Soin of the Kettering Health Network Innovation Center and the Ohio Pain Clinic in Dayton.

"It's amazing when you look at pain studies, and patients have a pain level of seven and you get down to four," Snyder says of other studies in pain reduction. "We had patients with a seven, eight or nine get down to zero. We had one patient sleep through the night for the first time in years."

The next step is to share the data with strategic partners and venture capital firms while doing long-term studies and further develop the technology. "It really keeps you motivated to keep going to get it to market," says Snyder of the results. "It's really meaningful."


Source: Jon Snyder
Writer: Karin Connelly