The 10 greatest medtech advances of the 2010s

10. Neurostimulation for everything

Medical device companies already had a few devices out in the early 2000s that used pacemaker technology to treat a few brain and nervous system disorders such as Parkinson’s. But the 2010s were the decade when they sought to harness neurostimulation or neuromodulation to treat a whole host of conditions.

Here’s just a sample of how it’s being used:

• In 2018, for example, FDA approved the Medtronic Deep Brain Stimulation for Epilepsy. Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) says the system can reduce the frequency of seizures in adults with medically refractory partial-onset epilepsy.
• Silcon Valley–based NeuroPace, meanwhile, touts its RNS System as the only closed-loop brain-responsive neurostimulation system designed to prevent epileptic seizures. The company is studying whether the system might also help treat binge eating in certain people.
• CVRx (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) scored a success last summer when it secured premarket approval to market its Barostim Neo device for heart failure in the United States.
• Nevro (NYSE:NVRO) has developed and commercialized the Senza spinal cord stimulation (SCS) system for chronic pain treatment.
• SPR Therapeutics launched its Sprint peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) system in November 2018, with indications for treating both acute and chronic pain.

– CN

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