Innovations in Neuromodulation

of fields; in each, rapid innovation is underway. Consequently, this is one of the most exciting and, potentially, one of the highest impact technologies and fields of medicine. In this overview, the most prolific dimensions of innovation are discussed, and a sampling of some of the most promising and high-impact technologies and ventures is briefly presented. The genesis of this presentation goes back to conversations that followed a more focused presentation given at NANS on neurosensing and neurocontrol in 2013, after which an invitation was extended to give a talk on high-impact technologies in neuromodulation that were “off the grid,” i.e., not yet on most neurosurgeons’ radar. This turned out to be a challenging task because most technologies that are “off the grid” are so because of one of two reasons: either they don’t work (at least not yet), or they do work—and work so well that their developers are keeping them under wraps. The author worked as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at Santé Health Ventures, and actively sourced and vetted a multitude of novel technologies and ventures in the neurotechnology space in general and in the neuromodulation space in particular. From this experience and from a network of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the field, a reasonably thorough and in-depth view was gleaned of the upstream pipeline of new technologies poised to impact our field. Because of the implicit obligation of confidentiality, only information which was explicitly approved for disclosure (even if available to the public via other sources) by the corresponding CEOs was included in this presentation. As one might imagine, and as is fully appreciated by the author from days as the founding CEO of NeuroVista, this confidentiality limitation was a substantial filter on what could be presented. Nonetheless, some of the most high-impact ventures produced or published information that is of importance to our field and readership and thus is included here.